Along with its natural beauty, coral reefs play an important role in the natural world. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, about a quarter of fish in the ocean rely on healthy coral reefs.
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The Danish energy company Orsted plans to try growing corals on the foundations of offshore wind turbines to see if the method can be implemented on a larger scale.
Together with Taiwanese partners, the concept will be tested in “Tropical Waters of Taiwan”. This week’s news is the latest step forward in the ReCoral initiative, which she started working on in 2018.
Last year, ReCoral participants were able to grow young corals on the pier. They were raised on what Orsted said were “underwater steel and concrete foundations.”
Tests to prove the concept in June 2022 will include an attempt to colonize larvae and then raise corals at the Greater Changhua 1 offshore wind farm, a major facility in waters 35 to 60 kilometers (22 to 37 miles) off the coast of Taiwan. . The project will use areas measuring 1 square meter on four foundations.
In a statement Wednesday, Orsted said the project’s goals were “to determine whether corals can be successfully grown on offshore wind turbine bases and to assess the potential positive impact on biodiversity from the initiative’s expansion.”
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Along with its striking beauty, coral reefs play an important role in the natural world.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, about a quarter of fish in the ocean rely on healthy coral reefs. “Fish and other organisms take shelter, find food, multiply and raise their young in the many nooks and crannies formed by corals,” the agency said.
In addition to being a source of food and what he calls “new drugs,” NOAA says coral reefs offer protection to shores from erosion and storms, as well as providing jobs for local communities.
Despite their importance, the planet’s coral reef is threatening rapidly, including coral bleaching. In March, the Australian management of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which manages the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, confirmed the fourth mass bleaching of 2016.
According to a 2017 data sheet from the GBRMPA, bleaching is what happens when corals are stressed, get rid of very small photosynthetic algae – known as zooxanthellae – and start starving.
“As zooxanthellae leave corals, corals become paler and more transparent,” it said.
The authorities’ information sheet cites the most common cause of bleaching as “prolonged heat stress, which occurs more frequently as climate change and oceans become warmer.”
While corals can recover from bleaching if conditions change, they can die if things don’t improve.
Orsted, for his part, says water temperatures in offshore wind farms can provide greater stability by preventing “extreme temperatures” from what he describes as “vertical mixing in the water column”. “.
The main idea of the ReCoral project is that this stability of water temperature will limit the possibility of coral bleaching, allowing healthy coral growth on turbine bases.
Whether at sea or on land, the interaction of wind turbines with the natural world – including marine or bird life – is likely to be an area of great debate and debate in the future.
In April, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that a company called ESI Energy Inc had “pleaded guilty to three counts of violating the MBTA” or the Migratory Birds Act.
More broadly, the US Energy Information Administration said some wind projects and turbines could kill bats and birds.
“These deaths can help reduce the population of species that are also affected by other human-related impacts,” it said.
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