This is a great first. After five years of hard work, scientists from the Coralassist laboratory at the University of Newcastle, England, have managed to improve the resistance of corals to heat using an “assisted evolution” technique. The objective? Protect these marine ecosystems from ocean warming, responsible for their rapid decline.
By studying a species of coral which responds to the sweet Latin name ofAcropora digitiferaBritish researchers realized that their heat resistance is not only hereditary, but also random. In other words, corals belonging to the family of Acropora digitifera do not all have the same ability to adapt to temperature fluctuations.
Based on this observation, scientists from the Coralassist laboratory created a breeding of corals pre-selected for their resistance to heat and orchestrated their reproduction so that their offspring inherit this genetic characteristic. Practiced for millennia to preserve or strengthen certain specific characteristics of a species, this technique of “assisted evolution” now serves as a tool for conserving biodiversity in the face of the deleterious effects of global warming.
+1°C resistance
To verify the effectiveness of this selective breeding method, British researchers exposed cohorts of corals Acropora digitifera to two types of heat waves – one lasting 10 days with an increase of 3.5°C, the other lasting a month with an increase of 2.5°C.
