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If a Fish Could Build Its Own Home, What Would It Look Like? - Smithsonian
By exposing fish to experimental constructions, scientists hope to find out if replicating coral reefs is really the way to go
As climate change and human depredations destroy ecosystems across the globe, scientists are stepping in to offer beleaguered animals temporary housing. For an octopus in the Mediterranean Sea, that artificial refuge comes as a sunken plastic pipe, while in the Hyères archipelago off France, nesting seabirds can cozy up in semiburied plastic jugs. But some scientists are going further and designing housing from scratch.
At the University of Delaware, for example, ecologist Danielle Dixson has shown that 3-D-printed replicas of natural coral, crafted from a biodegradable cornstarch substrate, can provide temporary scaffolding for a recovering coral reef. Dixson and her colleagues analyzed the necessary structure for reef fish housing—a coral with too many branches prevents fish from fitting inside, but wide gaps allow predators to sneak in and wreak havoc—and concluded that nature had already gotten it right.
By exposing fish to experimental constructions, scientists hope to find out if replicating coral reefs is really the way to go
As climate change and human depredations destroy ecosystems across the globe, scientists are stepping in to offer beleaguered animals temporary housing. For an octopus in the Mediterranean Sea, that artificial refuge comes as a sunken plastic pipe, while in the Hyères archipelago off France, nesting seabirds can cozy up in semiburied plastic jugs. But some scientists are going further and designing housing from scratch.
At the University of Delaware, for example, ecologist Danielle Dixson has shown that 3-D-printed replicas of natural coral, crafted from a biodegradable cornstarch substrate, can provide temporary scaffolding for a recovering coral reef. Dixson and her colleagues analyzed the necessary structure for reef fish housing—a coral with too many branches prevents fish from fitting inside, but wide gaps allow predators to sneak in and wreak havoc—and concluded that nature had already gotten it right.