最近，我们遇到了这场伟大的TED演讲，该演讲介绍了一些关于珊瑚幼虫行为的有趣研究，以及婴儿珊瑚在不断变化的海洋环境中生存和壮成长可能需要采取的措施。
“How we’re growing baby corals to rebuild reefs” in an informative TED talk by Coral Reef Biologist Kristen Marhaver presenting how her and her colleagues at the CARMABI Research Station in Curaçao are gaining new insights into coral reproduction. Kristen has been Investigating coral microbial ecology, larval behavior, and coral evolutions around the Island of Curaçao and using 3D printing technology to study some of the settlement preferences of coral larvae.
More specifically they have been looking at larvae fromdendrogyra cylindrus，通常称为支柱珊瑚，以及保存这种威胁物种的一些困难。许多加勒比礁遭受过度捕捞，温度升高，污水径流污染或沿海发育受到破坏的污染，所有这些都会导致粘液或藻类覆盖层增加并降低珊瑚健康。
在克里斯汀（Kristen）的演讲中，她说：“现在，这是谈话的一部分，您可能希望我向我们发动辩护，要求我们所有人拯救珊瑚礁。但是我有一个供认：这句话让我发疯。”我们对此无法达成更多的同意，我们很高兴看到Carmabi研究小组必须分享的一些解决方案。
为了测试珊瑚定居点的偏好，用不同的颜色和图案制成了3D打印的瓷砖，然后放置在海洋中，以查看哪种珊瑚更喜欢。他们发现，婴儿珊瑚仍然喜欢粉红色，而不是白色的色调，健康的珊瑚礁的颜色，珊瑚幼虫会在颠簸，凹槽和孔之间沉降，在感觉安全和受保护的地方。克里斯汀（Kristen）从这项研究中提出，当我们建造诸如码头（Piers）之类的沿海结构以鼓励珊瑚定居点时，我们会使用这些想法。
Kristens talk is full of passion and you can see this by the way she discusses her favorite coral, “dendrogyra cylindrus, the pillar coral. I love it because it makes this ridiculous shape, because its tentacles are fat and look fuzzy and because it’s rare.”
With help from researchers in Florida the team at CARMABI were able to pinpoint the yearly spawning times of dendrogyra cylinders, leading to the observation of spawning pillar corals around Curaçao. They collect both the eggs for the female coral and sperm from the male coral, successfully fertilizing and raising dendrogyra in the lab. Kristen shows off a picture off her baby dendrogyra corals saying “if you think baby pandas are cute, this is cuter.”
In her presentation Kristen says, “How would we get someone to care about the world’s coral reefs when it’s an abstract thing they can barely understand? If they don’t understand what a coral is or where it comes from, or how funny or interesting or beautiful it is, why would we expect them to care about saving them?”
我们说watching this TED talkis a mighty good start! Thank you Kristen for this greatly informative and Interesting look at the life of coral larvae.
