Creative Destruction: Coral Microfragmentation

Why microfragmentation offers an important opportunity for restoring coral reefs and helping them survive.

A possible solution

The term “creative destruction”, coined by economist Joseph Schumpeter, describes the destruction of old markets by new technologies, products, services, methods or business models. What has worked in the economy—for example, when cars displaced horse-drawn carriages or CDs replaced the venerable vinyl record—can also be applied in nature, including the restoration of threatened coral reefs.

Microfragmentation is the key. “Microfragmentation helps nature regenerate reef ecosystems,” says Diemo Niemann, chair of the environmental and nature conservation organisation Save Nemo e.V., which was preparing to launch a project using the technique.

Corals grow in colonies of individual polyps. Each animal is a polyp, and a single coral can contain hundreds or thousands of them. The original article describes microfragmentation as breaking corals into tiny pieces, or cutting them with a special band saw, until individual polyps remain. The advantage, it explains, is that these tiny coral fragments behave rather like injured skin: they regrow extremely quickly, sometimes ten times faster than larger pieces of coral. The fragments are grown into new corals in coral farms.

Coral farms are essentially tanks into which seawater is pumped. The article reports that controlling growing conditions can increase coral growth by as much as fiftyfold.

It also describes the cultivation system as a way to make corals less sensitive to ocean warming and acidification: temperatures in the tanks can be raised, or the pH lowered. In the article's account, this allows corals to adapt to new conditions and develop resistance. Under the most favourable conditions, it reports, farm-grown corals can be transplanted back onto a reef after just six to eight months.

“Microfragmentation will not make the climatic challenges facing coral reefs disappear, but this technique increases reefs' chances of survival in a lasting and effective way,” says Diemo Niemann.

Originally published in German on 30 April 2021. Read the archived original.