Restore With Resilience

The coral restoration and conservation communities may be able to increase the efficacy of their work by focusing on corals that are ‘pre-adapted’ to climate change. We are investigating the plausibility of this practice with the first large-scale restoration project in the world which focuses on thermally tolerant corals. We use stress testing and known parental performance to identify stock.

RestoreWithResilience.org

GatesCoral06(1).jpeg

PC: Elsye Butler

Ongoing Projects

  • Restoration at three sites on Oʻahu with thermally tolerant corals to document the effectiveness and ecological consequences

  • Broad evaluation of trade-offs to thermal tolerance in growth, survivorship, fecundity and morphological traits in future climates

  • Reciprocal transplants across environmental gradients to identify sources of resilience in Hawaiian corals and how they can be most effectively managed


Publications

Drury C, Lirman D. Genotype by environment interactions in coral bleaching. Proceedings of the Royal Society (2021). Link.

Caruso C, Hughes K, Drury C. Perspectives on Selecting Heat-Tolerant Corals for Proactive Restoration. Frontiers in Marine Science (2021). Link.

Barott KL, Huffmyer AS, Davidson J, Lenz EA, Matsuda S, Hancock J, Innis T, Glazer B, Drury C, Putnam H, Gates RD. Bleaching resistant corals retain heat tolerance following acclimatization. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). Link.