Coral reefs are among the precious natural resources struggling with environmental degradation, with warming oceans, ocean acidification, disease, overfishing, and other threats destroying reefs. The Great Barrier Reef, for instance, has lost more than half its corals since 1995 due to warmer seas.
Reef restoration efforts tend to employ concrete blocks or metal frames as substrates for new coral growth. This is a slow process that cannot keep up with the rate at which reefs are being destroyed; corals deposit their carbonate skeleton at rate of just millimetres per year. In an effort to speed up coral restoration, researchers from KAUST have been exploring the use of 3D printing to create specialised substrates.
“Coral micro-fragments grow more quickly on our printed or moulded calcium carbonate surfaces that we create for them to grow on, because they don’t need to build a limestone structure underneath,” said Hamed Albalawi, a PhD student and 3D bioprinting...