AUTHOR=Humanes Adriana , Beauchamp Elizabeth A. , Bythell John C. , Carl Mitch K. , Craggs Jamie R. , Edwards Alasdair J. , Golbuu Yimnang , Lachs Liam , Martinez Helios M. , Palmowski Pawel , Paysinger Faith , Randle Janna L. , van der Steeg Eveline , Sweet Michael , Treumann Achim , Guest James R. TITLE=An Experimental Framework for Selectively Breeding Corals for Assisted Evolution JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science VOLUME=8 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.669995 DOI=10.3389/fmars.2021.669995 ISSN=2296-7745 ABSTRACT=
Coral cover on tropical reefs has declined during the last three decades due to the combined effects of climate change, destructive fishing, pollution, and land use change. Drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions combined with effective coastal management and conservation strategies are essential to slow this decline. Innovative approaches, such as selective breeding for adaptive traits combined with large-scale sexual propagation, are being developed with the aim of pre-adapting reefs to increased ocean warming. However, there are still major gaps in our understanding of the technical and methodological constraints to producing corals for such restoration interventions. Here we propose a framework for selectively breeding corals and rearing them from eggs to 2.5-year old colonies using the coral