CREATING a NEW DYNAMIC for
CORAL REEFS
 

The world’s coral reefs—crucial habitats for sustaining life in the ocean—are experiencing an alarming decline.
 

Among the manifold threats are rising water temperatures, ocean acidification, and an excess of nutrients caused by urban and coastal development. Nowhere is safe—even corals in pristine habitats such as Australia’s Great Barrier Reef are starting to bleach and die.

The scale of the problem can seem overwhelming. Coral reefs, which consist of myriad living creatures, grow very slowly. Much of their reproductive process remains a mystery. The threats aren’t going away. But for Matthew Reidenbach an environmental sciences professor in UVA’s College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, the goal is to figure out the best way to grow self-sustaining populations of coral in the lab and out in the field.

“The historical way that people have been doing coral restoration is what's called fragmentation,” he said. “They take corals, break off a branch, and then try to grow it as a new fragment they can transplant out into the reef system. That works well, but the downside is that all those transplants are genetically identical.”

Reidenbach’s research focuses on understanding the dynamics of corals’ sexual reproduction and how larvae released into the water find the conditions that are most beneficial for their growth. 
 

GOING WITH THE FLOW

Rebuilding coral reefs is similar in concept, but far more complex in practice. “There are direct parallels where the larvae get released into the water column, they land on surfaces, and they grow,” said Reidenbach. “Within a year or year and a half, you have these beautiful adult oysters that look like healthy functioning oyster reefs, whereas corals might take a decade, two decades to even get to the start of that kind of restoration.” 

Working in the lab and in the waters off Bermuda, Reidenbach and his student researchers are building a framework for a better understanding of which coral species are the most likely to survive in a changing environment. Bermuda is a good candidate for fieldwork because the coral reefs there have long been impacted by human development.

“It's one of these places where humans have been interacting with the coastal system for a long time and they've had a lot of coral decline,” Reidenbach said. “The idea is to try to bring these coral species back. In Bermuda, we’re trying to figure out how to do sexual reproduction using coral larvae that get released into the water column, how they settle and grow.”

In the lab, Reidenbach’s team uses measurements from the field to analyze water surface topographies and flow dynamics to better understand what conditions are optimal for larval settlement. “We have models to look at the circulation patterns of the water around the islands of Bermuda to try to isolate places where there might be good site selection for restoration,” he said. “You don't want to put restoration sites in places that would have high wave conditions during hurricane events. I have one student doing large scale flow dynamics around Bermuda and another student doing very small-scale flow dynamics around individual corals. And then I’m doing lab work on the reproduction side of things.”

BACK TO BERMUDA

Reidenbach comes to the environmental sciences with a background in civil engineering, so his research has a practical aspect to it. “I really like the idea of coastal restoration where you can actually go in and build structures that then help the ecosystem,” he said. “We have a 20-year record of successful sea grass restoration, a 10-year record of successful oyster restoration. Now we're trying to do this with coral restoration.”

From Ten Eyck’s perspective, providing the vital initial support for research that has an immediate, transparent impact on the marine environment was precisely what he was hoping to create with the Fairfax Fund. “The idea was that a fund at UVA would be more efficient than giving to a traditional charity, which is typically 75-85% efficient,” he said. “As the administrative costs are already covered by the University, gifts or contributions are 100% efficient—all going to impact the environment. The activity is transparent; you know exactly what your gift is doing. It results in scaling your charitable giving.” 

Ten Eyck recently made an estate gift in the form of a charitable remainder unitrust to the Fairfax Fund. During summer 2024, Reidenbach’s researchers continued their lab work and the team returned to Bermuda in August for a second year of field work. The Fairfax Fund’s support is having an impact on his work at a crucial time.

“The initial funding is about supporting students, securing travel funds, and buying instrumentation,” he said. “Pete's support has been great in that respect. We’re now in the pilot phase of understanding the systems. In the next phase, private philanthropy can help us expand on the idea to build restoration sites that create coral reef systems and start to effect change in coastal systems.”