By: Staff Writer
June 26, 2026
A new study published today in the Cell Press journal One Earth shows that scientists can move the hidden microscopic life of a coral reef from one reef to artificial platforms where they can thrive.
The study, conducted by, The Perry Institute for Marine Science (PIMS) researchers Dr. Mark Little and Dr. Aaron Hartmann, noted in a release that this breakthrough work points to a tool that could broaden reef restoration beyond corals alone.
The release also said: “Most reef restoration focuses on the parts of a reef people can see, chiefly outplanting corals. But the overwhelming majority of a reef’s biodiversity is microscopic, and these communities run the nutrient cycling, disease regulation, and energy transfer that keep reefs healthy.”
“When people picture a reef, they think of corals and fish, but the overwhelming majority of a reef’s biodiversity is microscopic and easy to overlook,” said Little, lead author and a research scientist at PIMS. “What this work shows is that you can move that hidden community as a living, intact unit, and once you do, the whole system starts to behave more like a real reef.”
The release further said: “Working off the coast of Vieques, Puerto Rico, the team used Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures, or ARMS, standardized settlement units that passively gather the cryptic community of a reef.
“The ARMS were left to colonize for a year on natural reefs, then relocated, with their resident life intact, to two ‘Coral Arks.’ These engineered structures were suspended in the water column at 25’ above the seafloor, which was 55’. Lifting the community off the degraded seafloor is central to the approach because it gives reef life cleaner, more stable conditions in which to establish. Over 12 months, the seeded Arks developed viral, microbial, and functional gene communities distinct from unseeded control reefs.”
It continued: “Crucially, the shift in the community was not just toward a different membership, but toward a healthier membership. The unseen communities seeded onto the Arks shifted the overall Arks community toward the low-nutrient, reef-like conditions that characterize thriving reefs, and away from the degraded state typical of struggling ones.
“The transplanted viruses and microbes also did not simply persist. They formed entirely new communities, carrying functions from the seafloor reef they came from while gaining new ones from the midwater Ark.”
“This research provides exciting evidence that we can use ARMS to transplant entire reef communities, which opens up new opportunities and tools for reef restoration,” said Hartmann, senior author and a senior research scientist at PIMS.
“Some of the most striking changes were ones the team never transplanted directly. In companion work on the same structures, fish biomass climbed around the seeded Arks, and the data showed signatures of a fungal food web taking shape, suggesting that getting the smallest organisms helps set the table for larger life.”