Coral-Focused Climate Change Adaptation and Restoration Based on Accelerating Natural Processes: Launching the “Reefs of Hope” Paradigm

Abstract

The widespread demise of coral reefs due to climate change is now a certainty, and investing in restoration without facing this stark reality risks failure. The 50 Reefs Initiative, the dominant adaptation model for coral reefs is examined, and a new coral-focused paradigm is proposed, based on helping coral reefs adapt to rising temperature, to ensure that as many coral species as possible survive locally over time. With pilot sites established in six Pacific Island nations, genebank nurseries of bleaching resistant corals are secured in cooler waters, to help prevent their demise as heat stress increases. Unbleached corals selected during bleaching events are included. From these nurseries corals are harvested to create nucleation patches of genetically diverse pre-adapted corals, which become reproductively, ecologically and biologically viable at reef scale, spreading out over time. This “Reefs of Hope” paradigm, modelled on tropical forest restoration, creates dense coral patches, using larger transplants or multiple small fragments elevated on structures, creates fish habitat immediately. The fish help increase coral and substratum health, which presumably will enhance natural larval-based recovery processes. We hypothesize that incoming coral recruits, attracted to the patch, are inoculated by heat adapted algal symbionts, facilitating adaptation of the wider reef. With global emissions out of control, the most we can hope for is to buy precious time for coral reefs by saving coral species and coral diversity that will not likely survive unassisted.

Challenges in Restoring Mediterranean Seagrass Ecosystems in the Anthropocene

“…The restoration of a degraded P. oceanica meadow to its original pristine state may be somewhat unrealistic. Priorities should shift towards supporting ecosystems that demonstrate greater resistance and resilience to environmental changes and disturbances, even if they represent a modified version of the desired state [31]. Strategic transplantation of Cymodocea nodosa should be carefully planned in coastal areas where significant regime shifts have occurred and cannot be promptly reversed.…”

Is cancer an intelligent species?

“…Many species are able to adapt to new environmental conditions through phenotypic plasticity—the ability of an organism to modify its behavioral and physical features in response to changes in the environment. Coral reefs adapted to oceans warm without any genetic change through the expulsion of the symbiotic algae that live within them [ 17 ]. Plasticity can allow genetic adaptations to conquer new habitats subsequently.…”

Thermal tolerance traits of individual corals are widely distributed across the Great Barrier Reef

“…Species can adjust to local temperatures through physiological acclimatization of individuals within their lifespan through phenotypic plasticity, and/or selection for particular phenotypes within populations leading to changes in genetic variation across generations (Somero, 2010). Documenting phenotypic differences along thermal gradients can thus inform conservation and restoration efforts (Anthony et al, 2020; Bowden-Kerby, 2022) by improving predictions of species adaptive potential (Bennett et al, 2019), climate refugia (Lachs, Humanes, Mumby, et al, 2023) or extinctions (Sinervo et al, 2010). As such, thermal tolerance variation has been documented across terrestrial and marine taxa including plants (Reusch, 2014; Smith et al, 2017), reptiles (Herrando-Pérez et al, 2019), arthropods (Franken et al, 2018), birds (Charmantier et al, 2008; Noakes et al, 2016), marine invertebrates (Morley et al, 2012) and fishes (Fangue et al, 2006; McKenzie et al, 2021).…”