Researchers at AIMS are creating super corals that will better cope with climate change

Selected ‘super’ corals — ripe with eggs and sperm — have been carefully chosen by researchers to breed with coral from cooler reefs more than 800km away

SELECTED ‘super’ corals — ripe with eggs and sperm — have been carefully chosen by researchers during an expedition to the far northern Great Barrier Reef, to breed with coral from cooler reefs more than 800km away.

The project, led by the Australian Institute of Marine Science, comes at the same time as the Great Barrier Reef’s mass coral spawning event, which follows the upcoming full moon.

AIMS research scientist Dr Kate Quigley said artificial intelligence and genetic analysis was used by the team to locate reefs with a high likelihood of having heat tolerant corals.

“The far north of the reef has corals that have survived some of the most devastating coral bleaching events,” she said.

“These corals have the potential to withstand higher temperatures than those from other reefs.

“We aim to harness this natural heat tolerance and facilitate its introduction to more vulnerable populations, so we can speed up the natural process of adaptation.

“This could help the reef keep pace with rising temperatures, in hope of giving corals a fighting chance against future bleaching.”

The AIMS team has already successfully spawned and mixed five different coral species, including fast-growing branching and encrusting varieties. This work is based at AIMS’ National Sea Simulator, the world’s most advanced research aquarium.

AIMS Principal Research Scientist Dr Line Bay said the research is part of the Australian Government’s Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program.

The program is the biggest of its kind in the world, and is designed to help the reef resist, adapt to, and recover from the impacts of climate change.

“Warming oceans are causing more frequent and severe bleaching events – we have witnessed three major bleaching events in the past five years, which is seriously testing the reef’s resilience,” Dr Bay said.

Originally published as Researchers at AIMS are creating super corals that will better cope with climate change