Corals bred in a zoo have joined Europe’s largest reef

Subject: Geography

Sec: Oceanography

Context:

On Monday, divers with gloved hands gently nestled the self-bred corals from the World Coral Conservatory project among their cousins in Europe’s largest coral reef at the Burgers’ Zoo in the Netherlands.

More on news:

This is the first project where we started to keep these corals with a known origin.
It’s among several projects worldwide seeking to address the decline of coral reef populations, which are suffering from bleaching caused by rising sea temperatures.
Along with two zoos in France and the originator of the project—the Monaco Scientific Center—the zoo in the east of the Netherlands took in more than a dozen coral fragments from off the coast of Seychelles in east Africa.
The World Coral Conservatory hopes to create a bank of corals in aquariums across Europe that could be used to repopulate wild coral reefs if they succumb to the stress of climate change or pollution.

About Corals:

Vibrant and healthy reefs form when a coral and an algae — zooxanthellae — start a symbiotic relationship.
The coral provides protection and compounds zooxanthellae’s need for photosynthesis.
The algae produces carbohydrates and helps remove the coral’s waste.
Corals are central to marine ecosystems, and while these projects won’t stem the tide of damage from human-caused climate change, they are seen as part of broader solutions.
Corals are keystone marine species.

Coral Bleaching:

Bleaching occurs when coral under stress expels the algae that gives them their vibrant colors.
The algae is also a coral’s food source, and if the bleaching lasts for too long or is too severe, the coral could die.
In the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, bleaching affected 90% of the coral assessed in 2022.
The Florida Coral Reef, the third-largest, experienced significant bleaching last year.

Places in news:

Burgers ocean: Arnhem, Netherlands.
Burgers’ Ocean is a tropical coral reef aquarium that holds eight million litres of water.
It is the largest living coral reef in Europe.