Yoghurt may be reef’s saviour

Scientists have long pondered how to save coral reefs from destruction. Now it seems we should have been looking to our fridges for the answer all along – and that yoghurt may hold the solution. Probiotic bacteria have found a new role, moving beyond protecting our guts to saving coral reefs. Corals given a dose of probiotic bacteria in a laboratory were better at coping with stresses such as rising water temperature, which can cause reefs to turn white and die in a process known as bleaching. ‘‘We fed the corals with beneficial micro-organisms, which is like feeding them probiotic yoghurt full of good bacteria,’’ Raquel Peixoto, from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, said. ‘‘Then we ran numerous stress tests on the corals, and time and time again the corals that had received the probiotics were in better health than those that had not. This is an exciting breakthrough in boosting the ability of coral species to survive in times of stress and help them cope with a changing climate.’’ Scientists now plan to improve the survival of corals grown in sea simulators before they are planted to restore sections of the Great Barrier Reef. The survival rate of these corals in the wild is low, so they will be given a dose of probiotics before being transferred to the reef. Probiotic doses in slow-release parcels could also be delivered directly to reefs affected by heat stress. Professor Peixoto’s research team are running tests on different species of corals in the world’s largest artificial ocean, the Biosphere 2 in Arizona, and in laboratories at the University of Hawaii to refine which groups of good bacteria are the best for each species.