{"673744":{"#nid":"673744","#data":{"type":"external_news","title":"This Often-Overlooked Sea Creature may be Quietly Protecting the Planet\u0027s Coral Reefs","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-024-45730-0\u0022\u003Enew research published in \u003Cem\u003ENature Communications\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Biological Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;researchers\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/people\/mark-hay\u0022\u003EMark Hay\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;and\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/citations?user=hIj0CIAAAAAJ\u0026amp;hl=en\u0022\u003ECody Clements\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;and their colleagues demonstrated that when sea cucumbers were removed from coral reef, tissue death of \u003Cem\u003EAcropora pulchra\u003C\/em\u003E, a species of staghorn coral, more than tripled, and mortality of the whole colony surged 15 times. The reasoning is that sea cucumbers are like \u0022little vacuum cleaners on the reef\u0022\u0026nbsp;digesting and eliminating microbes that can lead to coral disease and demise \u2014 threats that are exacerbated by a warming and increasingly polluted ocean.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-024-45730-0\u0022\u003Enew research published in \u003Cem\u003ENature Communications\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Biological Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;researchers\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/people\/mark-hay\u0022\u003EMark Hay\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;and\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/citations?user=hIj0CIAAAAAJ\u0026amp;hl=en\u0022\u003ECody Clements\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;and their colleagues demonstrated that when sea cucumbers were removed from coral reef, tissue death of \u003Cem\u003EAcropora pulchra\u003C\/em\u003E, a species of staghorn coral, more than tripled, and mortality of the whole colony surged 15 times. The reasoning is that sea cucumbers are like \u0022little vacuum cleaners on the reef\u0022\u0026nbsp;digesting and eliminating microbes that can lead to coral disease and demise \u2014 threats that are exacerbated by a warming and increasingly polluted ocean.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"36583","created_gmt":"2024-03-25 20:31:40","changed_gmt":"2024-03-26 15:06:36","author":"lvidal7","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","publication":"NPR","field_article_url":"","publication_url":"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2024\/03\/13\/1237026196\/the-lowly-sea-cucumber-may-be-helping-to-protect-coral-reefs-against-disease","dateline":{"date":"2024-03-13T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2024-03-13T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"1275","name":"School of Biological Sciences"}],"categories":[{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"192249","name":"cos-community"},{"id":"166882","name":"School of Biological Sciences"},{"id":"193538","name":"sea cucumber"},{"id":"14760","name":"coral reef"},{"id":"187423","name":"go-bio"},{"id":"176431","name":"marine ecosystems"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}