Baby coral move towards sound, finds study

Research has found that coral larvae detect and move towards sound when looking for reefs, but that manmade noises may also endanger itBaby corals find their way to reefs by detecting the sound of snapping shrimps and grunting fish, scientists revealed today.It had long been assumed that coral larvae drift aimlessly after being released by their parent colonies and almost by chance land back on reefs. But scientists now believe that though they are anatomically very simple, the larvae can pick up the sound of a reef and head towards it.The discovery is worrying as it is feared the larvae might also be drawn to dangerous man-made sounds in increasingly noisy oceans or struggle to find reefs because human noise masks their sound.One of the experts involved in the study, Steve Simpson, senior researcher in the University of Bristol's School of Biological Sciences, said: "Until recently we assumed that these...

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