the destruction of natural ecosystems is
one of the biggest threats to our planet
whether through climate change natural
events or human interference
we are losing vital habitats areas like
forests or coral reefs not only harbours
millions of species but they provide
valuable ecosystem services benefits as
humans gain from nature thankfully
people across the planet are working to
restore them in some instances fire is
as important to a forest as water and
the Sun it can release valuable
nutrients clearing space for light
stimulating new growth but in areas like
the American Northwest increasingly
warmer and drier climates are changing
how and if forests can recover this fire
here's the Williams Flats fire they had
about 45,000 acres burn and you can just
see what the burn looks like after it
goes through and how there's just
nothing left normally you'd have low
severity fires go through and the tops
of these crowns would have all kinds of
cones ready to open up and drop seeds
because these fires are so large and
massive due to increased temperatures
from climate change there's just nothing
left here Grunk canary runs drone seed
and hopes the tech startup from Seattle
can make a difference the mission of our
company is to make reforestation
scaleable for the purpose of making a
dent in carbon emissions now how do you
do that
utilizing drone swarms
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drone seeds surveys the land using 3d
laser scanning technology known as lider
this gives them a huge number of data
points which they use to build a
detailed map of the area we run software
to then identify the obstacles off of
that 3d terrain map we actually get a
point cloud of about 800,000 points per
second most like lidar and self-driving
cars is around 200,000 points per second
so it's an incredibly dense we're able
to identify these micro sites where seed
vessels will grow really well the
software then plans out all of the
missions for the aircraft and so it's
exactly what you expect if you were like
planning out like how to mow your lawn
it's a lawn mower pattern that goes back
and forth in different areas the
operator controls takeoff and landing
once the drone is airborne AI takes over
to fly the predetermined route we put
about a thousand sea vessels per acre
each one of those has somewhere between
four to six seeds in it the human
planter can do about two acres a day
maybe three drones we're targeting 20 to
40 depending upon the terrain according
to canary it can take two years to grow
trees in a nursery which is time these
forests just don't have if these areas
are left without having trees planted
immediately after a fire invasive
species quickly move in changing the
landscape and making growth of trees
much harder the big risk is is this
gonna transform and turn into snap or
Savannah and it's gonna come back as ten
foot tall shrubs as far as like
mitigating the worst effects of climate
change there's really a handful of
things you can do the best one is
planting trees because they are the most
efficient thing you can do to sequester
carbon
just as forests of vital ecosystems on
land so a coral reefs in the ocean
they're home to a quarter of all marine
life despite making up less than 0.1% of
the ocean they protect land from storms
and waves and provide valuable resources
such as the fish we eat but reefs are in
decline
thanks to overfishing and climate change
half of all reef systems have already
been destroyed scientists predict that
in the next 30 years if we not do
anything more than 95 percent of the
coral reef around the world will be
endangered on a small island 140
kilometres from Bangkok a team of
biologists are working on ways to
restore coral reefs damaged by global
warming
the ocean absorbs much of the heat
trapped by greenhouse gases since 1993
the rate of ocean warming has more than
doubled the highest temperature that we
got was 34 centigrade and that makes
many corals in Thailand breach and
eventually die when stressed by
conditions such as temperature change
corals expel the symbiotic algae that
gives them their distinctive colors a
process known as bleaching the algae
lives inside the coral for protection
and in return uses photosynthesis to
help feed the coral if a coral is
severely bleached the chances of disease
and death increase the important thing
that we have to make sure is that the
baby color that we protein they have to
be able to withstand to the changes of
the environments
professor cherishes work is centered on
growing resilient coral one way she
believes is to improve the corals
genetics ciao NH and her team have
developed artificial fertilization
techniques on a mass scale during the
spawning season between January and
March they collect eggs and sperm from
several coral colonies and bring them up
on land to fertilize in their hatchery
here the larvae are grown on concrete
plates in tubs full of seawater they're
kept in the hatchery for two years so
they're strong enough and then replanted
by hand on the sea floor the baby kuroda
reproduce they have high diversity of
genetics and this can help them to
survive in a changing environments
funding issues mean the hatchery doesn't
have reliable air-conditioning running
water or perfect lab conditions but in a
twist of fate
the crude facilities might just have
helped the baby corals so you should eat
the temperature of the water in hatchery
is higher than normal about two degrees
centigrade or hot chilli is like a
one-star hotel resting the coral in this
one star hotel actually make over baby
oh baby coral stronger and can withstand
a real temperature when we release them
back to the oceans the team have grown
about 10,000 corals so far corals with
this genetic diversity have a survival
rate of at least 50% while the natural
survival rate is just naught point
naught 1% but the success comes at a
cost $100 for each coral replanted in
recent years mass coral bleaching events
have happened all over the world from
Hawaii to Australia the Gulf of Mexico
Madagascar and the Maldives the projects
like this in Thailand show there's hope
for our delicate eCos
so to see more fish more animals like a
crab and trim saw coming to the areas
using our corals as the habitats as a
home though far in 2019 weather and
climate events killed more than four
thousand people globally and caused
around forty two billion dollars in
insured losses scientists widely agree
it's only getting worse
replenishing habitats like forests and
reefs are vital in ensuring the health
of our planet reversing climate change
and protecting us from its disastrous
effects
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you