CNN reports that a in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment that has been specially designed for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef can help heal the damaged sections.

“Significantly increased the numbers of baby coral on reefs at Heron Island and One Tree Island” – says Peter Harrison, Ph.D., professor at Southern Cross University in Australia, who is leading this project.

His IVF success rate comes by putting higher numbers of larvae into the Great Barrier Reef system to get more coral recruits. And he believes, this IVF treatment of the coral reefs can be scaled up to much larger sections.

 

ivf-success-rate-for-coral-reef

 

The Great Barrier Reef — a Unesco World Heritage Site — lost around half of its coral in the past few years after two mass bleaching events in 2016 and 2017, a pattern repeated on coral reefs around the world.

 

IVF Treatment Process For Corals

 

The scientist mentions that this process is very similar to what is done for human IVF treatment. So during the annual coral spawning time, the scientists collected millions of coral sperms and eggs. They cultivate this into coral larvae and re-introduced them into the reef.

The IVF Success rate grew as these larvae successfully latched onto the reef as compared to the floating spawn and resulted in growth of baby coral.

While this has improved the hopes of restoring the Australian Great Barrier Reef, let’s hope that such reefs bounce back and help address bigger ecological challenges.

 

What Is IVF

To know more about IVF, see this video:

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