Supercharged coral vs climate change

摘要

What does your coral project consist of? It's an ambitious project to breed coral able to survive the enormously challenging conditions brought on by climate change. Our research facility is on Coconut Island in Hawaii, a small island off the coast of Oahu, where the opening shots of the TV show Gilligan's Island were filmed. It's incredible. I get into a tiny boat each morning to go to work. The island is surrounded by coral reefs: I am literally sitting in the middle of our experiment. What are the goals of this work? We are exploring why some corals survive conditions that kill others. We will then selectively cross-breed the healthiest specimens, a technique that is common in agriculture but has never been attempted in corals before. We'll take high-performing individuals - super-athletes-and breed them together. By the end of our five-year mission, in 2020, we hope to have a significant stockpile of highly resilient coral strains and a plan in place to use them to restore completely denuded and partially damaged reefs in Hawaii and Australia.