Coral reefs are in trouble. One laboratory in the desert is trying to help.

Not far from where superyachts are moored in a Dubai marina, nearly a thousand pieces of coral, trimmed a month ago, are being grown in four laboratory aquariums.

A land-based laboratory in the Arabian Desert may seem an unlikely place for regenerating coral reefs. But the corals are already brighter than when they were cut down in mid-November.

“We can see from the top the sign that the coral is slowly starting to grow,” said Ahmed Hamdy, manager of a coral farm. In six to 12 months, when the corals are healthy enough, Coral Vita, a private company dedicated to reef restoration, will move them to waters outside Dubai.

It’s part of an experiment. Coral restoration programs are in for a long-term wait due to climate change and environmental degradation, but marine scientists say they are critical to ensuring certain types of coral don’t go extinct. And corals in the Persian Gulf have evolved to withstand high temperatures, making them among the best candidates for understanding how reefs respond to extreme heat.

At the United Nations climate summit in Dubai, negotiations focused less on tackling the global biodiversity crisis than on finding an agreement to reduce fossil fuel production. But healthy, rich ecosystems, in addition to nourishing plants and animals, are crucial for storing carbon and protecting coastlines.

Coral reefs cover less than 0.1 percent of the ocean floor, but 25 percent of all known marine species depend on them at some point in their life cycle. Plus, they “block storm waves,” says Tali Vardi, executive director of the Coral Restoration Consortium, a group dedicated to supporting coral restoration practitioners. That’s especially important as global warming increases the intensity of storms, she said.

But extreme heat is taking its toll on even the world’s hardiest reefs. By some estimates, the world has lost half of its coral cover since the 1950s.

Record temperatures in 2017 led to the second mass bleaching event around the United Arab Emirates, which led to the loss of 66 percent of coral cover on eight major reefs in the southern Persian Gulf, said John Burt, an associate professor of biology at New York. York University Abu Dhabi.

There are two types of coral nurseries: those on land and those in the sea. Land-based aquariums are much more expensive than marine coral farms, but they allow conservationists to control water temperature and light exposure, creating ideal conditions for coral to thrive.

Coral Vita and other coral programs in the Emirates and elsewhere in the region have focused recovery efforts on heat-tolerant genotypes that are most likely to survive warming waters.

If they manage to successfully return them to the open water, this, along with a few other projects, could be a model for other programs.

One option in the future could be to reintroduce non-native, heat-resistant corals to ecosystems outside the Gulf, but this could pose challenges to ecosystems and would require careful study and regulatory approval.

“We’re not currently in a place where anyone is experimenting with moving coral between tanks,” said Dr. Vardi. “We’re barely there, we’re doing it in a basin.”

“We are in a state where we need to make sure we don’t cause further damage to the situation,” she continued. “There is a very important role for scientists and regulators to work together on smart and safe approaches to experimental methods.”

Climate change is not the only threat to the reefs around the Emirates. Desalination plants, which provide Dubai residents with fresh water, have also contributed to the rise in coastal water temperatures on the Persian Gulf. Without intervention, these temperatures are expected to rise by at least 5 degrees Fahrenheit in more than half of the area by 2050, the researchers said. a 2021 study published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin on ScienceDirect, a site for peer-reviewed articles.

The Emirates have also developed artificial islands that have destroyed reefs and other ecosystems. And it accelerates the development of coastal areas, which contributes to pollution and sewage runoff.

Mohammad Reza Shokri, associate professor at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, said there are limitations to coral restoration programs. For the past two decades he has worked to move corals in two coastal areas in Iran, and only about 30 percent of them have survived.

On a recent afternoon on Abu Dhabi’s Jubail Island, tourists walked on platforms through an area of ​​protected mangroves. Just beyond the mangrove forest, cranes were working on a large construction project to build luxury apartments.

While coral restoration may ultimately be an important part of a larger reef conservation strategy, Dr. Shokri, the best way to help coral would be for governments and companies to focus on protecting the environment.