SYDNEY, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- Scientists in Australia have led one of the world's largest reef restoration tests on a coral reef ecosystem during the recent mass spawning on the Great Barrier Reef.
The aim of the reef restoration methods being tested is to create a means to fast-track coral recovery on degraded reefs when needed, a media release of the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) said Friday.
Under the AIMS' Pilot Deployments Program (PDP), spawn was collected in partnership with locally based groups in far north Queensland, to rear millions of young corals, it said.
These were placed onto test reefs near Cairns, Port Douglas and around the Keppel Islands, further south, using two different science techniques and the power of people -- their skills, vessels and local knowledge, it added.
The methods were developed under the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program (RRAP), a collaboration of experts across Australia developing and testing novel scientific solutions to help the Great Barrier Reef and other coral reefs survive in the decades ahead, as the world endeavors to arrest global warming, the release said.
AIMS' PDP Director Mark Gibbs said the trial will "gain first-time insights into best-practice approaches, supply chains, technology and the people power needed to build a large-scale operational reef restoration program and a supporting aquaculture industry."
"Over the next three years, we'll be improving the efficacy of deploying RRAP interventions at scale on the Great Barrier Reef," Gibbs said, adding that the best future for coral reefs depends on global carbon emissions reduction, best-practice reef management and innovative scientific interventions.
Over the next year, AIMS will monitor coral survival, growth and response to stressors such as bleaching and competition with algae, the release said. ■
