Assessing the potential for demographic restoration and assisted evolution to build climate resilience in coral reefs.

ABSTRACT: Interest is growing in developing conservation strategies to restore and maintain coral reef ecosystems in the face of mounting anthropogenic stressors, particularly climate warming and associated mass bleaching events. One such approach is to propagate coral colonies ex situ and transplant them to degraded reef areas to augment habitat for reef-dependent fauna, prevent colonization from spatial competitors, and enhance coral reproductive output. In addition to such "demographic restoration" efforts, manipulating the thermal tolerance of outplanted colonies through assisted relocation, selective breeding, or genetic engineering is being considered for enhancing rates of evolutionary adaptation to warming. Although research into such "assisted evolution" strategies has been growing, their e

SUBMITTER: DeFilippo LB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9788104 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature