The augmented coral reproductive ecosystem is intended to address the environmental and climate related issues plaguing coral ecosystems. Coral reefs provide protection from storms, offer shelter for organisms, and act as catalysts for large portions life underseas. However, coral are dying because of pollution, debris, lack of food, and poor reproductive conditions.
Ultimately, this ecosystem is intended to help increase reproduction to repopulate the reefs, but the ecosystem also creates additional helpful circumstances not only for itself, but for the organisms around it. Coral reproduce once per year when sperm and egg emit from the coral and form larvae, hoping to land on a rock-like surface and grow. This ecosystem provides sites for coral to grow and expand as a bio-inspired organism itself.
The ecosystem recursively forms, sucking in and filtering pollutants, debris, animal waste, harmful chemicals, etc. into a mortar that reattaches to itself, expanding into a natural, and even coral-like structure. The ecosystem has both thin tube components as well as disc structures. The tube structural parts have filtering sites for bringing in pollutants and waste to be transported inside the tube and then mixed with other waste to add to the structure. The disc parts contain C02 capsules that act as the breeding ground for photosynthetic algae, the main source of food for coral. These discs have large surface areas to capture more larvae and also have divots as reproductive sites.
The ecosystem mimics biology in its naturally growing form and filtering components while acting in the interest of not only itself, but also the ecosystem around it. The filtering of pollutants helps other organisms thrive with the absence of waste, the expansion of the ecosystem gives organisms more shelter and places to reproduce, and the C02 capsules regulate the C02 and algae in the ocean creating suitable conditions for all life underseas. While this device is created to help coral reproduce and stay healthy, the impact of the systems surrounding it is equally as important hence the features for the entire ecosystem involving coral.
The images are displayed in reverse order, from healthy environment to unhealthy. The 3rd image demonstrates the initial phase of the ecosystem–a device surrounded by debris, pollution, and little life. The second image shows the progress of the ecosystem in action and the first image shows the healthy ecosystem after the device has done it’s job.
This project was made using Cinema4D.
