Coral Reefs That Can Finally Beat the Heat | WILD HOPE
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Published 2024-01-22
Corals are tiny animals that have a mutually beneficial relationship with an algae that lives within their cells. When stressed by heat, many expel their algae and turn white — known as “bleaching” — losing their main source of food and often dying within days. Half of all coral has been lost since the 1950s. But some corals do survive these bleaching events, and they’ve become the focus of Kira Hughes and her team’s work. By selectively breeding the coral that doesn't bleach, Kira hopes they can increase their resilience from one generation to the next.
To scale up their efforts, Kira’s team collects coral pieces that have naturally broken off in the ocean. With the help of volunteers, they prep and test these corals, and eventually replant the heat-tolerant corals they’ve found back into the reef they came from. This year, for the first time, the selectively bred coral “babies” will be planted too, giving the reef a fighting chance to survive the warming ocean.
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All Comments (21)
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Love to know more of the science behind it. Does heat tolerance mean that the algae is heat tolerant, does the coral protect it, or does the coral tolerate the algae toxins? Also, if we can assume many coral will bleach and die, is there any work to preserve the species that won't survive?
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The team turning this into an interactive, community project with volunteers is really cool.
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This is awesome! Well done to the researchers and locals in Hawaii for taking on this project! 🐠💙
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This made my day significantly brighter.
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Everyone involved in this project, from the scientists to every single volunteer, are doing important work to ensure that coral reefs can thrive globally. I was unaware of the existence of heat tolerant corals and was under the impression that it was only a matter of time before all of these reefs would die off. Now if nations around the world can work together to prevent the mining of minerals off of the bottom of all oceans we could be one step closer to keeping our oceans healthy.
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Your group of coral saviors are helping ensure future generations can experience what we do today in the ocean
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Bless your team. We need this attention in the Cayman Islands. The difference within my lifetime is absolutely heartbreaking. I feel like i'm losing my home every time I go swimming and notice the differences.
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Great work that realize us how extreme efforts will require if we destroyed our natural resources. Hope for the best heat resistance coral generations.
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LOVE THIS! The loss of our amazing beautiful reefs is absolutely heartbreaking and makes me so angry with the human species. We need to be better to our planet, nurture and protect it at all costs. Life truly is more precious than anyone can truly appreciate.
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Caring about one thing passionately and dedicating yourself to it is how you make effective change. Bravo
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Major props to these people dedicating their lives to saving the corals. Truly inspiring shit
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Amazing! This gives me so much more hope for the future of our coral reefs and oceans. I hope this breeding program can be adapted and expanded internationally where coral grows!
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I think it's less "the algae leaves the coral", more "the coral ejects the algae"
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This is why I love science. My only question is how these corals react to ocean acidification bc that's the second part of the problem, as far as I understand.
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Temperature stress can also be slow increase in temperature (to which they can adapt) then some violent storms that bring cold streams that cause thermal shock.
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Those corals in the tubs look like aiptasia resilient as well. Nice!
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Thank you, simply thank you. I adore seeing restoration efforts for these incredible habitats. And have the utmost respect for those dedicating their careers to helping them. Well done on your resilient F1's.
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i know coral reefs take thousands of years to form but this reminds me of a certain Greek proverb that goes" A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit". These guys are doing a great service to humanity
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This is the direction that brings me hope.
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Fantastic. Can’t wait to see the updates on stronger coral from these conservation efforts
