Sure, coral reefs are pretty, but they also have creepy almost alien-like superpowers: An entire reef can be regrown from a tiny chunk of coral.
Dr. Graham Forrester of the University of Rhode Island simplified what happens when the underwater structures regrow themselves:
To use a gardening analogy, the sourced coral is like an orchard of fruit trees. Storms knocked some twigs off the trees and we replanted them on barren ground. The twigs grow and blossom to form a new orchard. It’s the same process
Sounds innocent, but I’ll still keep being paranoid that I’ll wake up to a beach overtaken by coral. [Restoration Ecology via io9]
https://gizmodo.com/the-secret-superpower-of-delicate-coral-reefs-5555073
