How Scientists in the Dominican Republic Are Helping Coral Sex Life

Researchers in the Dominican Republic are helping the reproductive health of stony corals to give them a better chance against disease and bleaching events.

A 2019 study showed that coral reefs and their ecosystem services are worth $1.14 billion per year from just three areas in the Dominican Republic: Punta Cana, Bayahibe and Cayo Levantado. But by 2023, more than 90% of the coral on the reefs around the Caribbean country has gone dark.

Rita Ines Sellares Blasco, Spanish researcher and CEO of the Dominican Foundation of Marine Studies (FUNDEMAR) says that due to the loss of coral cover, corals cannot reproduce sexually: when they release their gametes (sperm and eggs) in water, colonies. they are very different.

“The gametes will not unite despite synchronous reproduction,” he says, “So, by trying to collect and fertilize the gametes, we make sure that they are successful in reproduction.” and to bring forth new people who will be planted in the rocks.”

Sellares explains that corals can reproduce asexually or asexually, but researchers have found that asexual individuals are more resistant to bleaching and loss of coral cells than clones or gametes from colonies. wild ones.

“If you reproduce them sexually, each new individual will be genetically different, increasing the resistance of the colonies,” he says, “genetic diversity is the key to survival of any kind.”

Coral reefs have faced several critical events such as bleaching diseases that cause their populations to increase. The 2023 bleaching event combined with SCTLD caused a 40-60 percent loss of coral cover and other coral species.

“This is why it is important to make sure that there is support for reproduction, despite the problems we face every year due to the loss of corals,” he said, adding that reefs are the foundation of national economy including food resources and employment opportunities from fishing and. tourism.

“Coral reefs are the first defense against hurricanes and tropical storms, their loss means loss of protection and increased costs of floods and loss of buildings after hurricanes or storms, which are increasing every year and a year,” he says. .

From Spain to the Dominican Republic

Sellares grew up near the sea in La Costa Brava, Girona, Spain and after starting his degree in marine science, he participated in various volunteer programs.

“I always knew I wanted to dedicate my time to something related to the ocean,” he says, adding that at the end of his degree, he took a course in marine biology in the Dominican Republic and volunteered to do research on humpback whales. .

Sellares explains that this was an important moment, because he met the founder and professor of FUNDEMAR Idelisa Bonnely, who was known as the “mother of Caribbean marine biology” and died in 2022.

“At that time, I thought my time in DR was temporary, but Idelisa as a natural leader and mentor, was preparing me to follow in his footsteps with FUNDEMAR,” he says. , adding that he took full direction of FUNDEMAR in 2015.

Sellares said that research in the Global South needs to be shared to help provide solutions to global problems; every institution or person can contribute to that.

He says: “During our time, we have been able to create an important network of partners and at the same time a network of cooperation in all regions of the Caribbean, where we share and receive,” he says, “we learn the same way from each other. place and understand the importance of adapting and creating local projects.”

Saving the Tortoises on an African Island

Another researcher from Iberia who ended up overseeing an independent organization of maritime communication on an island is Estrela Matilde, who was the executive director of Fundação Príncipe.

Conservationists in Sao Tomé & Principe, a small, biodiverse African island nation, are using “GPS in a bottle” to monitor plastic pollution along the coast. see.

The island of Príncipe was formed 31 million years ago and its tropical forests are one of the most important bird conservation areas in Africa: 57% of the country’s 49 species of birds are present according to the Convention on the Distribution of Insects -careful – but its beaches are an important habitat. for sea turtles.

Matilde, says that the NGO has helped convince the tribe that it is no longer acceptable to eat turtle meat and advocated for the first protected marine area in the country, but now the turtles are facing a global threat: plastics.

“Despite our efforts at home plastic from other places is washed ashore every day: we find turtles with their systems full of plastic every time and 25% of the videos collected in leave the 10 turtles we have identified on video showing plastic in the important waters of the coast of Principe, “Matilde says.