The restoration of reefs damaged by global and local pressures remains constrained by the scale of intervention currently feasible. Traditional methods for ex situ sexual propagation of corals produce limited materials, typically of limited genetic diversity and only sufficient for small field trials. The development and validation of new technologies to upscale and automate coral propagation is required to achieve logistically and financially feasible reef restoration at ecologically relevant scales.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCoral reefs are the epitome of species diversity, yet the number of described scleractinian coral species, the framework-builders of coral reefs, remains moderate by comparison. DNA sequencing studies are rapidly challenging this notion by exposing a wealth of undescribed diversity, but the evolutionary and ecological significance of this diversity remains largely unclear. Here, we present an annotated genome for one of the most ubiquitous corals in the Indo-Pacific (Pachyseris speciosa) and uncover, through a comprehensive genomic and phenotypic assessment, that it comprises morphologically indistinguishable but ecologically divergent lineages.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCoral reef replenishment is threatened by global climate change and local water-quality degradation, including smothering of coral recruits by sediments generated by anthropogenic activities. Here we show that the ability of Acropora millepora recruits to remove sediments diminishes under future climate conditions, leading to increased mortality. Recruits raised under future climate scenarios for fourteen weeks (highest treatment: +1.
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