Scientists are breeding American coral in the laboratory

Miami (AFP)

A team of scientists in the United States managed to make coral in the laboratory for the first time for this type of coral.

The experiment was conducted by researchers from the Florida Aquarium and involved the threatened coral species of the Great Barrier Reef off Florida.

"This incredible breakthrough is the first time that we had Atlantic coral spawning in the laboratory and that we had for one year in greenhouses," AFP spokesman Amber Whittle told AFP on Monday.

The procedure had already been successful for Pacific Coral at the Horniman Museum in London, she said.

Coral is an invertebrate animal that secretes a calcareous skeleton. Their accumulation forms the reefs.

Reproduction has been permitted by reproducing the natural environment of corals: sunrise and sunset, moon phases, temperature and water quality.

Florida corals are threatened by global warming and a disease that appeared in the waters in 2014. The hope is that the techniques developed in the aquarium could one day repopulate the reefs.

© 2019 AFP