As part of an ambitious reef restoration project, 100,000 corals will be planted in Singapore’s waters from 2024.
SINGAPORE: A new reef restoration initiative to plant 100,000 corals in Singapore’s waters is “an ambitious project” that the country has taken towards marine conservation, said coral reef biologist Karenne Tun.
The corals will be progressively planted and grown in the nation’s waters from 2024 to bolster biodiversity and improve the resilience of coral communities and reefs.
Coral reefs are vibrant ecosystems that have been threatened by a warming planet and human activities. Without major interventions, most of them will vanish by 2035.
Singapore’s reef restoration project will be demanding, said experts.
“When it comes to the marine environment, everything is challenging,” said Dr Tun, director of the coastal and marine branch at the National Parks Board's (NParks) National Biodiversity Centre.
“You're working in an environment that is foreign. To go underwater, you need to basically don gear and breathe air from a compressed unit. That's not natural to us.”
The amount of time that can be spent underwater is also limited, added Dr Tun, whose team is devoted to protecting Singapore’s coastal and marine biodiversity
“The deeper you go, the shorter the time you have underwater.”
Another limitation is that corals have to be grown in specialised facilities.
NParks is working with partners such as the St John's Island National Marine Laboratory to grow corals in tanks in larger numbers.
“The last 10 years gave us a lot of knowledge on how to do this well, but we need time to do it properly,” said Dr Tun, adding that the initiative is an opportunity to raise awareness.
“From a habitat perspective, we are trying to see how we could employ strategies that's been learned, especially in the last decade or so when there's so much knowledge gained on restoration techniques, and we're trying to apply that to hopefully maximise the chances of the corals to survive and outplant them.”
SENSITIVE BUT RESILIENT
Coral reef science is relatively new as compared to other disciplines, when scuba diving became accessible to the general public, Dr Tun told CNA’s The Climate Conversations podcast.
“That's about maybe 50, 60 years only, when people started collecting data. So we have that historical baseline that we can compare with.”
In Singapore, the first data started coming in around the late 1980s, she noted, adding that declines were observed in the next decade.
“Back then, of course, there was not as much knowledge or awareness of the marine environment and the kind of impacts.”
Soon, with more awareness, action started being taken at the academic and government levels.
By the mid-2000s, the coral reefs “have kind of improved back to the state they were in like in the 1980s” and have stabilised since.
“What strikes me is, this environment is sensitive, but it's also resilient,” said Dr Tun.
“It's sensitive, it can easily be destroyed, but if you give it time (and) a bit of love, it can actually recover.”
Corals are “one of the simplest animals”, said the avid diver. “So that's another interesting thing about them. They're animals and as animals, they can feed.
“But they also have this very interesting symbiotic relationship with an algae that lives in them that gives them colour. So a coral without an algae is translucent.”
In Singapore waters, they are usually brown because of the light environment.
But in clearer waters where ultraviolet rays can penetrate the water depth, they can have hues of pink, blue and green, said Dr Tun.
“So they can be quite colourful, especially when there's sufficient UV light that gets to them.”
DEPENDENCE ON CORAL REEFS
Dr Tun said: “Humans need to realise that our existence depends so much on the environment at every level, whether it's a coral reef or a rainforest or mangrove forest.”
Coral reefs occupy less than 1 per cent of the ocean.
“But because they're so diverse, a lot of the diversity in the world depends either directly or indirectly on coral reefs. So up to 25 per cent of the animals that you find in the marine environment have some dependence on the reef,” said Dr Tun.
Many types of fish, for instance, depend on corals as a source of food or for protection.
“Without coral reefs, protein sources go down, (because) you basically lose that ability to fish, to get that protein sauce, and that becomes an existential threat to humanity.”
Even with global action to save the reefs, more needs to be done for people who depend on them daily, such as fishermen.
“They're the ones who are going to suffer the consequences of reef loss more than we would,” said Dr Tun.
“I think that needs to be brought into the conversation globally that the communities that depend on them directly, we need to find solutions for them as well, because they will be the ones who will suffer first before we see the consequence of it.”
FACTORS THREATENING CORAL REEF SURVIVAL
In Singapore, data collected over the last three decades show that its coral reefs are stabilising in terms of their coral cover.
Yet, while reef cover might be maintained, the reef composition is changing, Dr Tun pointed out.
“Previously, we might have had more branching corals. Branching corals will attract different kinds of biodiversity,” she said.
“Now, we are having more plate-like, flat corals. We lose a three-dimensional diversity that could have other functional impacts, we don't know yet.
“So there are changes that are occurring. I think the scientific community is trying to understand some of these changes and assess the consequences so that we can intervene.”
Coral reefs are impacted by activities, which could introduce elements that reefs are sensitive to, such as sediments, said Dr Tun.
“There are a lot of measures in place in Singapore now to ensure that whatever activity that goes on in our waters, we don't introduce sediments.”
Reefs are also sensitive to sea surface temperatures, she added, noting that this is an issue scientists are trying to deal with at the moment.
One of the ways to help corals survive this is to build resilience by creating challenging environments and putting them under a bit of stress, according to scientists.
Researchers are also looking at the microbial community associated with corals, said Dr Tun.
“Scientists are trying to see if these communities impart some resilience to them, in the face of either temperature or other kinds of impact, that allow them to survive better,” she added.
“If we know which strains of bacteria can do that, we can then start growing corals in these environments where they can take on this bacteria. Then when we move them out, maybe they get a bit more resilient.”
ADOPTING GOOD DIVING PRACTICES
Dr Tun’s love affair with the marine environment started when she was an undergraduate.
When she went underwater for the first time during a diving course, she recalled being immersed in a completely new and surreal environment.
“The only sense you really have is your sense of sight, because whatever you're hearing is just bubbles,” she said.
“Then I was panicking. I was wondering, ‘Am I going down too fast? What's going to happen?’”
“And then I saw the reefs, beautiful corals in front of me with the fishes and then I forgot about the completely foreign environment. I think that was enlightening for me.”
As the years went by, she heard about how the coral reefs are being impacted and decided to work in marine conservation.
“I decided this is what I want to do,” said Dr Tun, who used to dive about 100 to 150 days a year.
“I want to work with the people who are trying to find solutions to ensure that this beautiful environment can be there for generations to come.”
With coral reefs being sought after diving spots, Dr Tun advised divers to adopt responsible diving practices, including updating their skills and not touching items in the sea that they do not understand.
“Don't go diving in a pristine area if you don't have the skills to manage yourself underwater. Because if you don't know how to fin properly (and) your fins are all over the place, that can break a lot of corals,” said Dr Tun.
Dive operators should also be educated, so they do not compromise or manipulate the environment just because their customers want to see certain marine life, she added.
“It's about educating the dive industry and the divers themselves at the same time, to make sure that they understand that all these can harm the environment.”
Source from Channel News Asia
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