We are happy to share the news that our Prof. Raquel Peixoto has been selected as the 2022 coral champions by Lewis Pugh Foundation.

BY JACQUI L'ANGE

Coral reefs are in crisis. An estimated 14% of the planet's coral has been lost over the last ten years due to heat, cyclones, floods, invasive species and disease outbreaks. Future predictions are even more dire: if we don't keep temperature increases below 1.5 degrees, we lose 70% of our coral; at 2 degrees, 99% will be gone. Every degree matters, which is why these Coral Champions are working hard to protect, promote, record, celebrate and propagate one of the world's most diverse ecosystems. Join us in saluting them and the wonderful work they do!

RAQUEL PEIXOTO
CORAL PROBIOTICS

You may have attended a few ribbon cutting opening ceremonies in your life, but they probably didn't take place underwater. Yet when Raquel Peixoto inaugurated her first coral probiotic village, that's exactly what they did. Raquel is a Brazilian scientist working at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia whose pioneering work has paved the way for new approaches to explore mechanisms of marine microbiology and symbiotic interactions, and for a new area of research on coral probiotics. "My goals are to investigate and understand key symbiotic mechanisms promoting the host's resistance and resilience against different impacts, as part of my projects on coral reef protection, restoration and rehabilitation," she says.  Check out some of the project she and her team are doing in the Red Sea here, and more about the Coral Probiotics Village here.