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In an effort to combat the bleaching of coral reefs, researchers at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology are jumping on the “assisted evolution” bandwagon. The term describes a process in which scientists in the HIMB’s Gates Lab are breeding coral that is more resistant to ongoing climate change in a lab, then reintroducing it into bleached coral reefs in hopes that it will aid in rebuilding a healthy reef.
With climate change gradually taking place all over the globe, the world’s oceans have warmed. That’s had an impact on the acidity of the water (pH levels), which inevitably triggers the bleaching of some corals. In this process, stressed algae leave the coral leaving behind vulnerable coral that is now completely white. Scientists worry that this climate change and warming of our oceans will happen faster than our coral can evolve to protect itself naturally, hence the need for “assisted evolution.”
In 2014 researchers at the lab published a study called “Building Coral Reef Resilience Through Assisted Evolution,” in which they point out that traditional methods of conservation aren’t doing enough to secure a future for coral reefs. They also draw a parallel of humans genetically enhancing animal species for “thousands of years” as an accepted practice, while conservation and restoration initiatives in the environment are rarely considered because they have less commercial applications. So they’ve selected certain algae types to expose to a mutagen (chemicals or irradiation with UV light or X-rays), taking advantage of both natural and artificial methods to speed up the tolerance traits in their coral host.
