1. 4/15/2016 Civil Geeks: A Promising Approach To Creating ‘Super Corals’ - Civil Beat News
http://www.civilbeat.com/2016/04/civil-geeks-a-promising-approach-to-creating-super-corals/ 1/7
COLUMN
ABOUT 17 HOURS AGO · By Burt Lum 2
Civil Geeks: A Promising
Approach To Creating ‘Super
Corals’
“We can assist the evolution of coral,” says the director of the Hawaii Institute of
Marine Biology.
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In late 2015 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared that we are
in the third global coral bleaching event. The previous global coral bleaching event
occurred in 2010, due to ocean warming triggered by El Niño.
This latest coral bleaching already has been deemed the longest on record, affecting
not only reefs in Hawaii but also in the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, Kiribati and potentially
the Republic of the Marshall Islands, among other places.
In Australia alone, some scientists estimate that 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) of the
Great Barrier Reef face a major bleaching event. Bleaching occurs when stressed corals
eject the symbiotic micro-algae they rely on for nutrition. An extended event can kill the
coral. If you factor in ocean acidification due to the the increase of atmospheric carbon
dioxide, these additional stresses are catastrophic to corals.
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2. 4/15/2016 Civil Geeks: A Promising Approach To Creating ‘Super Corals’ - Civil Beat News
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One person who recognized and felt compelled to do something about this growing
threat: Dr. Ruth Gates, director of the University of Hawaii’s Hawaii Institute of Marine
Biology, located on Moku o Lo‘e, also known as Coconut Island, in Kaneohe Bay.
For the last 25 years Gates has been studying coral reefs. In 2013, she and her team
from Hawaii, along with Dr. Madeleine van Oppen from the Australian Institute of Marine
Science, were awarded $10,000 by the Paul G. Allen Ocean Challenge. They were
among a select group of finalists to submit proposals to address the environmental
impacts of ocean acidification.
Then, in 2015, Gates and her team were awarded $4 million by the Paul G. Allen Family
Corals on a patch of reef in Kaneohe Bay, during a temperature-induced bleaching event in 2014,
show the variation in the health of members of the same coral species (Porites compressa)
growing side by side. One colony is completely bleached white, while the adjacent one is dark
brown and healthy.
Raphael Ritson-Williams

3. 4/15/2016 Civil Geeks: A Promising Approach To Creating ‘Super Corals’ - Civil Beat News
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Foundation to discover ways coral can become more resilient in the rapidly changing
coastal environments. Their goal was to build a toolkit of ways corals would have a
fighting chance against the warming and acidification of the ocean.
“Corals are in decline,” said Gates. “And that decline seems to be outpacing the intrinsic
capacity for the system to respond and adapt. So what we are doing is accelerating the
rate at which corals do things naturally. Based on what we know, we can assist the
evolution of coral. This is what we call assisted evolution.”
Closeup view showing the anatomy of a coral (Pocillopora damicornis). The red is the millions of
Amy Eggers

4. 4/15/2016 Civil Geeks: A Promising Approach To Creating ‘Super Corals’ - Civil Beat News
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Corals are complex organisms. Reef building corals have a symbiotic relationship with
photosynthesizing micro-algae that live inside the coral’s tissues. In this relationship, the
coral provides a protected environment; and in return, the micro-algae
use photosynthesis to provide the coral with food and oxygen.
When corals get stressed, the relationship between the coral and its micro-algal
symbiont goes out of equilibrium, causing the the coral to starve and turn that
distinctive white color. Global conditions such as climate change and El Niño are
causing ocean waters to rise in temperature, throwing the coral’s sensitive equilibrium
out of balance.
You can observe that right here in Kaneohe Bay, where the corals have been stressed
due to warming temperatures, raw sewage effluent, over fishing and sediment runoff.
Despite these effects, you will still find healthy corals right next to ones that are
bleached and dead. Gates observed that in many cases, some reefs do better than
others. Just within Kaneohe Bay there is an enormous variation in the response within
individual species of coral.
With the Paul Allen grant, Gates and her team are taking a bold approach to maximize
on the strengths of the corals that exhibit the most resilience to these stresses. Some
corals and their micro-algal symbionts are stronger than others. Gates aims to explore
three areas:
• Induced acclimatization: This strategy intentionally subjects corals to stress levels to
see if they can become more resistance to change. By applying repeated variations in
temperature, the corals could build up their stamina and be better equipped to survive
warming trends in the wild.
• Selective breeding: In this approach, corals that have survived a bleaching event are
bred to perpetuate their genes, in the hope that these corals’ genetic makeup may
enable them to survive warmer temperatures and more acidic waters. These samples
are bred to see if the resilient traits are carried forward to the offspring.
micro algae inside the animal tissues; the blue are batteries of stinging cells called
nematocysts;and the green is a protein found in the coral animal tissue. The living coral is
visualized using a scanning laser confocal microscope under UV light.

5. 4/15/2016 Civil Geeks: A Promising Approach To Creating ‘Super Corals’ - Civil Beat News
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• Modification of symbionts: This idea focuses on studying the micro-algal symbionts
and to promote the survival of the coral by determining which algae feed their hosts
better or which are more temperature tolerant. By combining symbionts with coral
hosts, experiments could show whether symbionts with particular traits can help the
coral survive more readily.
The project is relying, in effect, on selective breeding. It has drawn little scientific
criticism. Some scientists have said we should leave the corals to cope naturally. But
Gates argues that we have already lost 30 percent of the world’s reefs, and that the
negative effects of warming and climate change are harming the reefs faster than they
can recover on their own.
The goal of the five-year project is to develop a toolkit of what works and what doesn’t
The Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, part of the University of Hawaii, is located on Moku o Lo‘e,
or Coconut Island, in Kaneohe Bay.
Joshua Levy

6. 4/15/2016 Civil Geeks: A Promising Approach To Creating ‘Super Corals’ - Civil Beat News
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work. Gates emphasized that they are in a proof-of-concept phase and aren’t anywhere
near implementing any coral restoration.
“We have nothing to lose by doing the proof of concept,” Gates said. “The question of
whether we implement restoration projects using these corals is a conversation we
need to develop over time. We need to understand how we might implement and
design projects in collaboration with a much broader group of people.”
“We are not at the time when we are thinking of how to use them (corals). We are at the
time when we are deciding whether we can do it. Even if we are able to mitigate fossil
fuel burning and start to protect coral in their place, we need to somehow stop and
stabilize the downward trajectory and get the system to naturally reinvigorate.”
“But in lieu of that happening, to do nothing at this point is too risky, and will have
adverse effects on the billions of dollars of economic value associated with the reef
resources. And honestly, from the point of view of a researcher conducting basic
science, if we fail at this experiment that’s okay. At least we tried.”
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COLUMNIST
Burt Lum
Burt Lum is a communicator, innovator, community builder, open data advocate,
and sci/tech geek. He is the Executive Director of Hawaii Open Data, co-hosts
Bytemarks Cafe on Hawaii Public Radio and the Geek Beat on Hawaii News Now.
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