Did you know economists value the world’s coral reefs in the hundreds of billions of dollars per year? Coral reefs aren’t valuable just for their tourist attraction. Besides providing protection from storm surges and waves, they are more increasingly important in the research for new antibiotics and cancer drugs.
This is a fascinating talk by marine biologist Kristen Marhaver on how reefs survive and reproduce. For instance did you know coral after spawning turn into a swimming larva the size of a poppy seed, which has all of the sensory systems that we have? They can sense colour and light, textures, chemicals and pH! And they select where they want to root themselves and grow.
