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The Win Win (Win Win?) Solution to 

Protecting Coral Reefs

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For protecting and restoring coral reefs, artificial upwellings are:

FAST to deploy and take effect

EFFECTIVE ecosystem-based approach

SCALABLE for global impact

SAFE for organisms and ecosystems

with CO-BENEFITS like boosted reef resilience

July 2023 had the highest sea surface temperatures on record, leading to massive coral bleaching events globally.

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Artificial upwellings use eco-mimicry to cool coral reefs

A single upwelling unit can save approximately 1km² of coral reef area from thermal stress, bleaching, and disease, just like a natural upwelling. 

They cost around 50k USD each and can be deployed quickly during thermal events, and stored on land when not in use. 

Great Barrier Reef
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Upwellings offer co-benefits beyond thermal protection

  • contain higher nutrient concentrations that increase community productivity and metabolism for reefs and their associated fisheries

  • have different microbial communities from surface waters, it can act as an inoculation against disease - both preventing and treating diseases in all reef organisms

  • remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at a rate of ~250 tons annually

Environmental risks are low

Natural upwellings offer strong evidence for the positive effects of seasonal upwellings on coral reefs. With this natural analogue, we can reasonably expect that the risk to reefs are lower than the known extinction risk of doing nothing. 

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