This project is exploring technological and methodological options to automate, and upscale, the sexual propagation of corals in an aquaculture setting.
This 2024 Great Barrier Reef spring coral spawning season, lead investigators Dr Mikaela Nordborg and Andrea Severati will test innovative coral aquaculture and coral health monitoring systems. These tools may hold the key to upscaling the number of corals produced in a single spawning event for reef restoration, making the process of sexual propagation of corals at large scales logistically and financially feasible.
A key innovation in the aquaculture system is the AutoSpawner, a fully automated aquaria system which increases the efficiency of the aquaculture process. it is designed to both harvest coral eggs and sperm and capable of producing fertilised eggs in large numbers within minimal manual interference.
This system was developed and tested in 2022 and 2023 and compared with manual fertilisation methods. The study found the Autospawner:
- collected more gametes (egg and sperm) in a shorter amount of time across the four species tested
- had comparable fertilisation success
- reduced labour costs between eight and 100-fold, depending on the species.
Autospawner in 2024
In 2024, the team will focus on optimising the grow-out of the recently settled corals.
The team will also investigate how high-density rearing of coral recruits in aquaculture settings affect their survival and health. Some of the work, in particular the design of the holding system and the assessment and fine tuning of the water flow within each part of the tank, is already underway. They aim to grow out recruits of multiple species of corals for up to 12 weeks.
Additionally, testing of several systems for automatically monitoring the health and growth of young corals (both while free-swimming larvae and after they have metamorphosed into recruits) during rearing in aquaculture facilities using artificial intelligence and robotics will be trialed, in collaboration with experts from the Queensland University of Technology.
These systems will be instrumental in trials delivering young corals onto reefs in large numbers.
Researchers
Dr Mikaela Nordborg (AIMS)
Andrea Severati (AIMS)
Dr Andrew Negri (AIMS)
Dr Muhammad Abdul Wahab (AIMS)
Dr Andrew Heyward (AIMS)
Dr Christopher Brunner (AIMS)
Dr Dorian Tsai (QUT)
Karen Jackel (QUT)
Riki Lamont (QUT)
This research is supported by:
The Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program, funded by the partnership between the Australian Government's Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.
This page was updated in October 2024.
