PHILIPSBURG:--- Researchers from Van Hall Larenstein, Wageningen University, and Wageningen Marine Research have developed a new approach to assist Diadema sea urchins’ natural recovery. In collaboration with the Saba Conservation Foundation, researchers provided the additional substrate for settlement on the reef, increasing sea urchin recruitment and thereby demonstrating the importance of suitable settlement substrate for recovery processes.
Deterioration of Caribbean coral reefs began in the 1970s when diseases devastated the most important reef-building corals in the region. These issues were then accelerated, when the most abundant herbivore, the long-spined sea urchins (Diadema antillarum), suffered massive die-offs ...
