Van Oppen said there were concerns about losing genetic diversity and critics who said the scientists were "playing gods" by tampering with the reef. Scientists found that between 20, the world lost about 14% of its coral.Īssisted evolution was not widely accepted when first proposed. Gates, who died of brain cancer in 2018, also said she wanted people to know how "intimately reef health is intertwined with human health."Ĭoral reefs, often called the rainforests of the sea, provide food for humans and marine animals, shoreline protection for coastal communities, jobs for tourist economies and even medicine to treat illnesses such as cancer, arthritis and Alzheimers disease.Ī recent report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other research organizations concluded bleaching events are the biggest threat to the world's coral reefs. "And so that's what our focus is on, working with parents that are really thermally tolerant." "Corals are threatened worldwide by a lot of stressors, but increasing temperatures are probably the most severe," said Crawford Drury, chief scientist at Hawaii's Coral Resilience Lab. If successful, the scientists say the more heat tolerant corals could help save vital reefs that are dying from climate change. They say they do, and now they're getting ready to plant selectively bred and other lab-evolved corals back into the ocean to see if they can survive in Nature. For the past five years, researchers in Hawaii and Australia have been conducting experiments to prove their Darwinian theories work. Scientists are trying to speed up coral's evolutionary clock to build reefs that can better withstand the impacts of global warming. And they found selective breeding held the most promise for Hawaii's reefs.Ĭoral ecologist Crawford Drury sets up test tubes to collect spawning coral eggs in a lab at the University of Hawaii's Institute of Marine Biology in Kaneohe, Hawaii, Saturday, Aug. So, researchers are focusing on those hardy survivors, hoping to enhance their heat tolerance. The coral turns white-a process called bleaching-and can quickly become sick and die.įor more than a decade, scientists have been observing corals that have survived bleaching, even when others have died on the same reef. When ocean temperatures rise, coral releases its symbiotic algae that supply nutrients and impart its vibrant colors. "We have to intervene in order to make a change for coral reefs to survive into the future," she said. Hughes said the methods all have proven successful in the lab.Īnd while some other scientists worried this is meddling with nature, Hughes said the rapidly warming planet leaves no other options. And modifying the algae that give corals essential nutrients.
Test tubes are set up to collect spawning coral eggs in a lab at the University of Hawaii's Institute of Marine Biology in Kaneohe, Hawaii, Saturday, Aug. Acclimation that conditions corals to tolerate heat by exposing them to increasing temperatures. Selective breeding that carries on desirable traits from parents. Researchers tested three methods of making corals more resilient: "Assisted evolution started out as this kind of crazy idea that you could actually help something change and allow that to survive better because it is changing," said Kira Hughes, a University of Hawaii researcher and the project's manager. Now, they're getting ready to plant laboratory-raised corals in the ocean to see how they survive in nature. In this Darwinian experiment, the scientists are trying to speed up coral's evolutionary clock to breed "super corals" that can better withstand the impacts of global warming.įor the past five years, the researchers have been conducting experiments to prove their theories would work. They scoop up the fishy-smelling blobs and put them in test tubes.
Minutes later, like clockwork, they see eggs and sperm from spawning coral drifting past their boat.