Nature & Environment
Great Barrier Reef Sperm Bank to Preserve Corals for Future [PHOTOS]
Staff Reporter
First Posted: Feb 22, 2012 09:40 PM EST
Never again the Great Barrier Reef will be genetically as diverse as today. This scientists agree on and kick off a new initiative to preserve as much as possible of this bio-diversity.
70 Billion spermatozoa and 22 Billion coral embryos have been frozen by Australian scientists, indexed and stored away in the sperm bank of Dubbo Zoo at the outskirt of the West Coast outback.
Maybe one day the samples will be used to renew the corals of the Great Barrier Reef. Climate change, pollution, construction sites and storms are threatening the reef and its corals. The new sperm bank is meant to create reserve for the genetic pool to be drawn from in the future.
The Great Barrier Reef was declared UNESCO world natural heritage. About 400 species of corals, 1,500 different fish species and 4,000 Mollusca as bivalves and snails are living together in this great habitat.
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First Posted: Feb 22, 2012 09:40 PM EST
Never again the Great Barrier Reef will be genetically as diverse as today. This scientists agree on and kick off a new initiative to preserve as much as possible of this bio-diversity.
70 Billion spermatozoa and 22 Billion coral embryos have been frozen by Australian scientists, indexed and stored away in the sperm bank of Dubbo Zoo at the outskirt of the West Coast outback.
Maybe one day the samples will be used to renew the corals of the Great Barrier Reef. Climate change, pollution, construction sites and storms are threatening the reef and its corals. The new sperm bank is meant to create reserve for the genetic pool to be drawn from in the future.
The Great Barrier Reef was declared UNESCO world natural heritage. About 400 species of corals, 1,500 different fish species and 4,000 Mollusca as bivalves and snails are living together in this great habitat.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone