On June 14th, 2023, the ONCE Program invited Professor Rinkevich to give a seminar on the theme of "Gardening the Coral Reefs - Three Decades of Activities that Lead to the Establishment of Floating Reef Devices (FRD)."
During the seminar, Professor Rinkevich discussed a gardening approach for coral reef restoration, involving raising corals in nurseries near open-cage fish farms and transplanting them into degraded areas. This approach has been successful in increasing coral biodiversity and improving marine ecosystems. He further explained the potential of using coral reefs as a source of carbon credits and highlighted the recent research on the role of coral reefs in removing carbon from the atmosphere.
Prof. Rinkevich is a renowned expert on coral reefs and has been working on coral reefs restoration for over 30 years. His research and joint paper publications have been cited for over 1,7000 times. He is also one of the lead authors in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report.
ONCE program aims to develop ocean-based solutions to mitigate the climate change driven by green-house gases, especially CO2. The cultivation of coral reef could be a potential approach to enhance CO2 capture and sequestration. ONCE scientists are looking forward to strengthening the academic collaboration with Prof. Rinkevich, University of Haifa, and National Institute of Oceanography in Israel. The shared vision of ocean carbon negative emissions will gather more marine scientists to conduct innovative research to achieve carbon neutrality.
Edited by Zeyu Zhang
Editing contact: xjz@xmu.edu.cn