Planet NOAA Podcast Episode 11: Close-up on corals

[Planet NOAA theme music plays]

SARAH JESTER (HOST): Welcome back to the Planet NOAA Podcast. I’m your host, Sarah Jester. Today, we’ll be chatting with Brian Beck, a coral reef expert here at NOAA. But first, let’s check in with our Heritage Correspondent.

[Did You NOAA theme plays]

HOST: I’m here with resident NOAA trivia legend Tara Garwood. Tara, can I wish you a Happy New Year, or is February too late in your book? I know that this is controversial!

TARA GARWOOD: You know what, Sarah, I’ll take it! How’s your start to the year been?

HOST: Tara, I’m not gonna lie…I’ve felt the absence of your fun facts while the podcast was on holiday hiatus. I’ve got a fever, and the only cure is more trivia. 

GARWOOD: [Laughs] I think I can help with that. Sarah, Did You NOAA that in the early days of coral research, coral reefs were actually considered a danger to ships?

HOST: Well, I suppose I can see how the unfamiliar might be frightening, but I can only assume that changed over time?

GARWOOD: You’d be correct. Let’s travel back in time to NOAA’s predecessor, the U.S. Coast Survey. Alexander Dallas Bache, who was its Superintendent all the way back in 1851, commissioned controversial scientist Louis Agassiz to study corals and any potential danger they posed to mariners. 

HOST: Interesting, okay. And what’d we learn from those studies?

GARWOOD: We’ll find out right after this. But here’s a sneak peek—coral research is a family business!

[Planet NOAA guest theme plays]

HOST: Coral reefs are some of the most biologically diverse, culturally significant and economically valuable ecosystems that exist on our ocean planet. Many scientists at NOAA are dedicated to studying these incredible animals — that’s right, corals are living animals. So, I’m excited to have NOAA coral reef ecologist Brian Beck joining us today on Planet NOAA. Welcome, Brian!

BRIAN BECK: Hi, Sarah. Thanks for having me. 

HOST: Absolutely. Thank you for being here. Brian, I’d love it if you could tell me a bit about yourself. What you do, where you’re from; what you get up to when you’re not studying corals?

BECK: My job is, I'm a marine biologist with NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program. I'm originally from Omaha, Nebraska. So, you know, obviously, I went into marine biology being from the middle of the United States. And in my free time, I like spending time away from the ocean in the forest, hiking around; spending time with my dogs.

HOST: Awesome. A lover of nature; I love to see it. 

BECK: Yeah, we are. 

HOST: Brian, what initially drew you to marine science? And how about coral research in particular?  

BECK: Yeah. So, I was in the middle of the U.S. and studying geology, actually, when I was in college, and we took a trip to the Turks and Caicos Islands, which is an island nation in the Caribbean. And that was my first time snorkeling ever. It was my first time seeing a coral reef, and it was amazing. And I thought, oh, these coral things are pretty cool. And I kind of want to study them more. And so originally, I wanted to be a paleontologist and study dinosaurs. And slowly that changed to studying fossil corals, to then studying modern corals, to being here at NOAA.

HOST: Alright, I like that shift from paleontology into the study of corals!  Would you call corals the dinosaurs of the sea?

BECK: [Laughs] No, no.

HOST: [Laughs]

BECK: Corals were really cool in a geologic fashion because you see the living corals right off shore. And then when I was on this trip, we would then go on to the islands and you could see the rocks and whatnot that it made up. So corals have been around for a long time in different forms. They're just one of many fascinating animals that have been around for a very long time.  

HOST: Fascinating is certainly the word I would use. And when we talk about corals, I think most folks picture a colorful tropical underwater reef with fish darting in and out. Visual beauty aside, Brian, I’d love it if you could tell us what corals are and what they’re made of. So, really, how do those gorgeous reefs come to be?

BECK: Corals are actually colonial animals. So when you look in a classic picture of what you see in your head, when someone says coral reef, when you see one coral, that's actually thousands of little individuals. A coral is related to jellyfish, actually. So if you zoom in really close on that coral, what an individual polyp looks like — and these are all the little individuals that make up the coral — they look like upside-down jellyfish. So the big bulb part of a jellyfish would sit sort of inside the coral and its tentacles sort of come out and do a little bit of feeding. On the base of that bulb is how it forms the skeleton around it, so it creates the rock, [which is] why a lot of people think corals are just rocks. And that's a really hard skeleton. But then the third really interesting aspect of corals is…in their skin is an algae that lives with them in a symbiotic relationship. And this is actually where corals get the majority of their sustenance. So these [algae] take in sunlight and convert it to food for the coral. You know, the thing people always say is that corals are plant, animal and mineral all wrapped into one. And so these corals grow, they create these skeletons and then over long periods of time — now we're talking back to my geology roots, over geologic time scales — these corals die, more corals grow on top of them. And these reefs accrete is what the word is. And they basically build up over time on the tops of dead coral skeletons. It's kind of morbid if you think about it like that, but this is how big coral reefs are formed. This is how it creates all that really cool, what we call, rugosity. That's like all the gaps and spaces around corals that [create] homes for fish and lobsters and all these other really cool organisms that are associated with coral reefs.

HOST: I was glad to hear you mention sustenance just now and the fact that reefs create homes for different species, because coral reefs play a really significant role in many different parts of our lives and the lives of other species. When we think about our food sources, for example, more than half of all fishery species that are found here in the U.S. depend on coral reefs to survive, which in turn provides us with sustenance through the seafood industry. Corals also contribute to new medicines. They help filter toxins out of the ocean. And [I] could go on and on and on about the really endless benefits of corals culturally, economically; sustainability-wise. But, Brian, we know that corals are threatened by different kinds of impacts, depending on the kind of environment that they’re in; depending on what kind of coral they are. And those impacts come from climate change, pollution, diseases, fishing impacts. So, Brian, broadly, how are scientists working to restore corals and reef ecosystems that have been impacted? 

BECK: You say coral restoration; people who are somewhat familiar with it, they picture, okay, you grow coral, you go down in the water, you plant a coral. And it is that. But it's a lot more too. The restoration needs of one place are not the same as another place. For instance, in Florida, there are a couple species of corals that are genetically at risk, meaning there are not very many genotypes of this coral left, and it's creating bottlenecks for reproduction. And so saving all of those different genotypes of the same species of coral is really important. So when stony coral tissue loss disease came through Florida and started killing lots of corals, they underwent a coral rescue. And a lot of this involved taking these important genotypes out of the water and putting them in land-based facilities to keep them alive, so that when the conditions got better, when the disease passed through, they could take these corals, put them in nurseries, make more, and outplant those so that genetic diversity is preserved. Some restoration involves building up corals along important coastal areas for coastal protection. Some is just research in the lab, understanding more about these threats to corals so that we can make corals that are more resilient to climate change, more resilient to disease. So that helps the restoration practitioners, the people going out and planting these corals, so that what they outplant is going to be hardier and survive longer. 

HOST: Awesome, thank you so much for that overview, Brian. And I want to back up just a minute to something that you said about corals protecting coasts. Could you tell me a little more about what that actually means? How do corals protect coasts? 

BECK: Yeah. So if you picture a coastal community with coral reefs, you see waves breaking further away from shore. You don't see huge waves breaking right on the beach. And that's because these reefs create a high peak fringing away from shore. And so when wave energy comes in, it breaks on that reef before it gets to shore. So by the time those waves hit the shore, they're a lot smaller. So when big storms come in, that storm damage is reduced greatly by the coral reefs that are further away from shore. And this protects tons of infrastructure. And a lot of modeling and really great work has been done to show hey, where the reef type is correct, here's how many millions of dollars [are] saved in infrastructure loss. 

HOST: What reef type would be the correct reef type? 

BECK: So you get these reefs where there's a nice reef crest. So, when I say reef crest, it comes up really close to the top of the water. There are some reef types where it just starts going deep directly offshore. And obviously, since that doesn't come back up to the surface, it's not really going to reduce that wave energy. So not all reefs are built for this type of coastal protection, but in a lot of places, [they are]. And a lot of great work has been done with the USGS and other partners looking [at] and modeling all of our coral jurisdictions — that's the states and territories with coral reefs — to see, you know, where these sort of key areas are. 

HOST: Gotcha, that’s great to hear about that partnership covering coral jurisdictions. And, Brian, as a part of this partnership and your other work, those altogether have taken you to over 16 countries to study and talk about coral reef conservation and restoration. So, what exactly does your current role in coral restoration at NOAA entail, whether it's overseeing some of those restoration processes we just talked about, and really what have you gotten to experience and learn about reef management through these travels?

BECK: A lot of my work was in the water doing surveys. I've sort of taken a step out of the water. I coordinate a lot of the coral restoration work and help develop the priorities that the jurisdictions need. I talk with the jurisdictions — so in the U.S., that's Florida, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Hawaii, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam — and these are all of our partners. And I talk to them and understand what their needs are for coral restoration and put those priorities in a cultural context. So, I take the very specific scientific needs and understand, you know, how am I going to put that in the context of this community in Hawaii that needs coral restoration? The capacity of what can be done in Hawaii is different than what can be done in Florida. And it's different than what can be done in American Samoa. And their needs are very different as well. So, what I do is pair up those needs with NOAA expertise in all of our different labs and offices to help get the work done on the ground that needs to be done.  

HOST: Fantastic, I love that place-based approach. It's important to draw on local knowledge and local experiences to really shape that restoration work on the ground. So appreciate hearing about that. You mentioned your past work on surveys in the water. I know that at this moment in time you’ve stepped out of the water for a little bit. But let’s dip a toe back in, so to speak, just for a moment. What is it like to be up close and personal with a healthy coral reef?

BECK: Yeah, I got to dive in a lot of really cool places. So, I was diving in the Galapagos Islands. I saw whale sharks and penguins and iguanas all in the water, hammerhead sharks. So, seeing the stuff you usually see on the Discovery Channel up close in the water is pretty amazing. [I] also dove on a reef in French Polynesia that was 100% coral cover. And you just take a moment and you look at the reef, and you realize, everything I'm looking at is alive right now. You typically see so much sand and space in between the corals that it's really easy to distinguish between the two. But there's been some places where the corals looked amazing and really healthy. And it gives you a lot of hope.

HOST: Brian, tell me a little bit more about what it means for a reef to have 100% coral cover.

BECK: So when you go down on a reef, one of the key measures you're looking for, for sort of reef health, is coral cover. And basically what that means is you look at the bottom of the reef and you estimate or measure how much of the bottom of that reef is covered with live coral. And so, when I say 100% coral cover, that means I would look down at the reef and all I saw was coral. There was no sand, no dead coral, no rock sticking up. It was just pure covered of live coral.

HOST: Alright, thank you to that reef in French Polynesia for providing us with a fantastic example of 100% coral cover! Last year on the podcast, we talked quite a bit about early coral research. For example, in 1970…we talked a bit about the HYDROLAB, when that was introduced, which was NOAA's very first undersea research habitat. And what that did was really revolutionize the study of corals at the time by allowing scientists to live and work on the ocean floor for days or weeks at a time. But a lot has changed, and we've come a long way over the last five plus decades or so, when it comes to coral research. So, how would you say that NOAA's coral research and restoration work has really evolved and coalesced since then? 

BECK: Yeah, coral science in general is a very young science. If you're going to look at  all sorts of ecology and conservation. Because of the difficulty of access, right? Breathing underwater is not something we do well, naturally. 

HOST: [Laughs]

BECK: So we need a little bit of assistance. Coral reef restoration, ecology, conservation, all of that has come leaps and bounds over the past five decades; over the past two decades. Technology recently has obviously played a really big role. So, talking about coral surveys, right? When I was doing coral surveys a decade ago, you would go underwater, place a tape down and start writing down everything you see on a slate with a pencil. Now we're moving towards photomosaic imagery. So we go down and take thousands of photos of the reef floor. We stitch those together. We use AI to help identify things like coral cover. We use AI to help identify corals that we see at the genus level. It saves time. It saves money. Things go quicker. So, I also talked about some of our laboratory work that's done, studying the biology of corals, understanding how temperature affects at the cellular scale of corals, looking at how ocean acidification affects corals, different pollutants. Understanding those thresholds for coral restoration, we look at selective breeding of corals to make them more resilient to temperature. So, every aspect of our work has changed significantly in the last ten years to use technology and science to its best ability to make what we do more effective. 

HOST: AI has been, needless to say, a huge topic of conversation over the last couple of months. And I’d love it if you could shed a little bit of light on what kind is being used to study corals here at NOAA. 

BECK: It's a lot of machine learning. So it's taking this imagery, putting it in, having people say, hey, this is a coral, this is not coral. And it learns that and it starts to improve its algorithms and how it analyzes all of these photos. And again, this is all about saving time, long-term monitoring, using all of this to help us improve how we characterize corals, how we conserve corals and monitor them into the future.

HOST: I think in terms of machine learning — as far as machine learning at NOAA goes — another great area that we touched on a little bit last year was passive acoustic monitoring and how that's being used to record and identify different calls and sounds that marine mammals are making underwater. And so using passive acoustic monitoring and machine learning has allowed our scientists to save tons of time; sort through hundreds of hours of audio and pick up on patterns and trends through the process of that machine learning. So it's great to see that that’s being applied underwater in a different format, different field.

BECK: Yeah. And I really expect to see this area, AI, machine learning, to really explode, not just for coral conservation, but for NOAA in general in the next 5 to 10 years. 

HOST: Absolutely. And today, we've talked a lot about restoration specifically, but I know that's just one of several pillars of NOAA's coral work. So, what are some other areas in which NOAA is leading coral research and resilience efforts?

BECK: Yeah. So in December of 2022, the Coral Reef Conservation Act was reauthorized. As a part of this act, there's a new strategy that we are developing. This is a national-level strategy, so not just for NOAA, but for the nation as a whole. And what we've done is worked across agencies of the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force, and we're developing this strategy to highlight all these different pillars of work that are important for coral reefs. So for example, fishing and climate change and restoration and land based sources of pollution. From there, all the jurisdictions create more specific strategies for their localities pointing to this national-level strategy to make sure that the work they need is getting done with a regional context to it.

HOST: Brian, it’s great to hear you highlighting that place-based approach again. Like you mentioned earlier, having that cultural context is essential for reef management and conservation and it’s so important to ensure that communities have that seat at the table when it comes to ensuring that the reefs in their area are going to thrive for decades to come. Brian, thanks to NOAA's coral research, we know that some corals can live for up to 5,000 years, which would make them the longest living animals on our planet. What's one thing that you want more folks to know about corals that they might not already know? 

BECK: Ooh, that's a good question. There are a few things. One I think that's really important is that corals take a long time to grow. They grow very slowly. And so that's one of the reasons that we talk so much about coral conservation and coral restoration is that once one coral dies on the reef, that's at least a decade, if not 20 to 30 years of coral growth, that's gone. And so the impact of one snorkeler's fin knocking over a coral can have years and decades worth of impact. So understanding that combined with all of the ecosystem services you listed — the importance to fishing and coastal protection — understanding the importance of corals, combined with how long it takes for these corals to grow and to create these vibrant coral reefs, those two things combined really help to illustrate the value of these coral reefs and how much they need to be protected.

HOST: Just to take it back a little bit to the beginning of our conversation, you had mentioned that once a coral dies, other corals will grow on top of it. So, really, how long does that process take?

BECK: So the dead corals basically provide a substrate for new corals to settle on. Now, if everything is great and the ecosystem’s healthy, there's good fish populations, this can happen pretty quickly. But say a coral dies on a reef that has a lot of fishing impacts where there's not very many herbivores. Before that coral can settle on that dead coral, often what you get is algae starts to grow, and it takes up that substrate, that settlement area for corals. And without that, the coral doesn't settle on anything and no new coral forms. So, one of the things we talk about with land-based sources of pollution and healthy fish populations, it's to maintain this healthy ecosystem so corals can settle and grow without being overgrown with algae or with the water getting too cloudy and not letting the sunlight in.

HOST: Well, you heard it here first, folks, these are fragile ecosystems that can face obstacles to growth depending on the environment, so please be careful when you’re up close and personal with them. Beyond that, Brian, this might be like asking you to pick a favorite child, but do you have a favorite coral?

BECK: I don't have a favorite coral. I like them all. I think they're great. You know, seeing the big, huge mass of corals is just…wow, right? So, there's some that are just bigger than cars, some as big as small houses even; there's a couple in the world…versus these little guys that live in crevices that don't get tons of sunlight, and a lot of people wouldn't notice them. But when you're doing coral surveys and your nose is a foot off the ground the whole time, you notice these little things in these cracks and crevices that a lot of people wouldn't see or appreciate.

HOST: What kinds of things have you noticed on these surveys when you’re peering into those cracks and crevices? 

BECK: There's a lot of little critters that live in coral reefs, little worms called nudibranchs that are really colorful and have all this sort of flair depending on what species. Then there's hundreds and hundreds of them that you see in different areas. Little crabs and lobsters and things that hide in all the crevices. We talk about fish a lot, which are very important, but corals are the homes to thousands and thousands of organisms that you would never see standing two feet away from the coral. So, when you get up and close, you start to see all these little things. There are lots of things I have missed with my face close to the ground, and people would say, oh, did you see that shark or that huge manta ray? And I'm like, no, I didn't, because it flew over my head while I was looking down. 

HOST: I love it, and I love that you mentioned that there are corals that exist in the world that are as large as small houses, because in a way, all corals are small homes.

BECK: Oh, exactly! Yeah, that's a really good way of thinking about them. 

HOST: Well, Brian, there's a lot to coral research, and we've just barely scratched the surface today. So, if folks want to learn more about corals or about NOAA's work, where can you direct them? 

BECK: So the Coral Reef Conservation Program has great social media accounts. Our website is coralreef.noaa.gov. A lot of great resources there. And we have one really big coral restoration project in Florida called Mission Iconic Reefs offsite link. They have a website as well now that just launched. And that is a huge restoration project going on to restore some really key reef sites across the Florida Keys.

HOST: Wonderful. Well, I've got some great resources to explore later today. Is there anything else you'd like to share with us, Brian?

BECK: Just thank you very much for having me on and taking the time to talk about coral reefs.

[Planet NOAA guest theme plays]

HOST: Brian Beck is a coral reef ecologist who works for NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program, or CRCP. Along with helping to manage the CRCP as a whole, he is responsible for overseeing the coral restoration work that CRCP funds within NOAA. 

[Did You NOAA theme plays]

HOST: Welcome back, Tara. So, what did Louis Agassiz learn from his coral research?

GARWOOD: So, U.S. Coast Survey Superintendent Bache asked Agassiz whether the growth of coral reefs could be prevented to make marine navigation safer. Agassiz responded: “I do not see the possibility of limiting in any way the extraordinary increase of corals, beyond the bounds which nature itself has assigned to their growth.”

HOST: Okay, so he didn’t think that we could inhibit their growth; that is a reasonable conclusion. If we’re operating in the 1850s, I think…wasn’t Darwin also working on his own coral theories around then?

GARWOOD: Darwin and Agassiz actually got into some serious scientific spats over the great debate of the time: evolution versus creationism.

HOST: [Laughs] Yeah, I know that Agassiz had some questionable beliefs, to say the least. Plus, as far as Darwin goes, I think we know who won the evolution vs. creationism fight.

GARWOOD: Well, remember how I mentioned that coral research is a family business? Louis Agassiz’ son, Alexander, also worked for the U.S. Coast Survey and he set out to avenge his father, so to speak, by disproving Darwin’s early theory on corals.

HOST: Okay, what was Darwin’s early theory, though?

GARWOOD: He believed coral reefs were formed as volcanic islands subsided into the ocean and created the right conditions for them to grow. On the other hand, Alexander believed that elevated sedimentary platforms built up until they reached a point where enough sunlight went through the water for corals to live on them. He mounted a challenge to Darwin, who wrote back to Alexander, “If I am wrong, the sooner I am knocked on the head and annihilated the better.”

HOST: [Laughs] Oh my god. Coral research is much more dramatic than I thought it was. So, which one is the correct theory, though? And did Alexander avenge his father? I’m not rooting for him, but this is all very Inigo Montoya of him.

GARWOOD: It so is! You can find out on the next episode of the Planet NOAA Podcast! In the meantime, I’ll be rewatching “The Princess Bride.”

HOST: Let’s have a watch party. 

GARWOOD: Ooh, yes!

HOST: I am the world’s biggest Peter Falk fan and I am reporting for duty.

GARWOOD: [Laughs]

[Planet NOAA theme plays]

HOST: Thanks for joining us on the Planet NOAA Podcast, where we prepare people for tomorrow’s planet, today. Tune in next time as we follow the journey of marine specimens from the ocean floor all the way up to the museum floor.