6 ms·

A moonshot for coral breeding

220 points by Petiver 4y ago

ggm 4y ago
A similar programme for tank breeding and reseeding has been working in Queensland too. Getting tank corals to spawn is hard I believe. They're aiming to breed up higher temperature tolerant initial colony types to use for rebuilding bleached coral. Small instances are "seeded" onto a bad spot with a stable base matrix like a scaffold, to develop and grow. The matrix either decays over time or is stable and not a problem left in place. My understanding is that beneficial fish and related species are needed for the full biome to "work" and the seeded early coloniser types help these animals come in from surrounding areas. Without this work, a more rapid colonisation by less beneficial types can happen. Almost any remediation gets my upvote for trying, but at scale avoidance of the man made causes of coral death is much more important.
- aliqot 4y ago
  A lot of what hobbyists might not realize at first is the fact that coral are colonies of many many tiny organisms each performing their role, like zooxanthellae. These structures are enabled by entire ecosystems of ancillary bacteria on adjacent rock and the water column that maintains the equilibrium. A lot of the acute die off we see is not just warming waters or pollutants harming the coral itself, but primarily the damage to the unseen symbiotes, food sources, and bacterial colonies that are part of the coral's life cycle. With few exceptions if you have a piece of coral in your tank and it dies, it's your fault. They're immortal otherwise when left undisturbed. Some common pet store coral like pulsing xenia, green star polyps or zooanthids will grow in spite of the worst conditions to the point where they become invasive. All you need is a single polyp and most coral specimens we're familiar with will eventually grow and spread as far as the ecosystem will allow. Deep deep layered sand beds, areas of stagnant water and high flow water, macroalgae, various gas exchange areas, copepods, amphipods, all of it is part of a holistic picture that is needed for these bacteria to be happy. This process can take years of what I call 'strategic neglect' by not messing with the deeper darker anoxic layers of sand and algae. If those bacteria are happy the coral has no choice but to thrive. I hope this new effort to get the coral to spawn without subdivision succeeds so that future generations can see the same things we once saw, and the life it creates below.
  - ggm 4y ago
    I'm sure you know this but for others; the "tanks" here are university lab near industrial scale plastic 10,000l tanks, not glass walled home aquarium tanks. Same same, but they know what their doing and what complex symbiotic organisms coral are. UQ's Heron Island has table rigs under lighting but on the mainland at JCU and I believe the CSIRO it's pretty massive. Australian uni Tank farmed corals have spawned in the same lunar phase as reefs for a while I believe, it's getting them to do it more frequently and doing the "IVF" like stuff, and implanting on scaffolding which is hard. Not a coral scientist. I welcome corrections
    - jimmySixDOF 4y ago
      Another place doing some important research is KAUST above Jeddah on the Red Sea. They are working with one of the Barrier Reef photogrammetry capture programs to monitor coral and doing replacement testing etc due to higher average water temps so a coral evolved to withstand Red Sea summer might be a fit for the more recently hotter QLD water. I hope something like this works one of the most amazing things I have ever seen was a spawning event years ago. Coral is the canary in the coal mine of Climate Change and if we can't help them adapt then I am afraid we might not be able to either.
    - liveoneggs 4y ago
      You can do it at home with a lunar light, temperature controller, and a curtain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9jsNTyeGNk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9jsNTyeGNk
    - somishere 4y ago
      AIMS are the main org I know of that are doing lab-based synchronised spawning in Australia, and more interestingly IMO spawning/survivorship under future conditions. SeaSim is fairly well known here and tends to get national media attention around the annual mass coral spawning event (expected early next month). https://www.aims.gov.au/about/facilities/national-sea-simulator https://www.aims.gov.au/about/facilities/national-sea-simula...
    - Maursault 4y ago
- bumblebritches5 4y ago
baxtr 4y ago
Tangential: It’s amazing to realize that corals are in fact animals. Though coral may look like a colorful plant growing from roots in the seafloor, it is actually an animal. Source: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/coral https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/coral
- eloisius 4y ago
  Or colonies of millions of tiny animals. They are indeed fascinating and beautiful. I just went diving this morning and I’m in my way to a second dive right now. The effects of bleaching are visible, and it pains me to think that in my lifetime they could disappear.
  - baxtr 4y ago
    You're checking HN while you are on the way to your second dive this morning? Wow.
    - eloisius 4y ago
      It’s pretty bad…
      - baxtr 4y ago
        I feel you... And now put down that damn phone and enjoy the dive! :D
        daniel-cussen 4y ago
  - UncleOxidant 4y ago
    Colonies of millions of tiny animals that incorporate plants into their tissues in order to generate energy from the sun.
- 4y ago
ghotli 4y ago
I can't remember the last time I read an article that made me feel more like quitting my career and starting a new one.
- baxtr 4y ago
  What made you feel this way? Because you feel like your time could be "better" spent?
- steve_adams_86 4y ago
  Hakai has a way of doing this. Their research in British Columbia is literally awe inspiring at times, and they’re experts at writing and presenting it.
- bjelkeman-again 4y ago
  If you feel that way you seriously should consider it. I have often had people tell me that they want to change, but then gone on to explain all the reasons why they can’t. There are many very interesting opportunities out there.
ips1512 4y ago
Nice
trash3 4y ago
liveoneggs 4y ago
You can breed acroporas (elkhorn is a type of acropora) in your home and the list of species where spawning triggers are being documented is increasing. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jamie+craggs+coral https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jamie+craggs+co... Light pollution is (yet another) a big deal problem for the reef.
- dtgriscom 4y ago
  "The New Ronco Spawn-o-Matic! Just point it at your aquarium, pull the trigger, and shazam! Gametes everywhere!"
MeteorMarc 4y ago
How about corals fixating CO2 from the atmosphere?
andai 4y ago
I've been wondering something. So corals evolved 535 million years ago. During this time the earth went through large fluctuations in temperature (ocean temperatures of 35 degrees, Antarctica being tropical), and CO2 concentrations over twice as high as we have now. But supposedly they can't handle the current conditions? That makes no sense to me. Are the causes of coral bleaching actually understood? Wikipedia lists a dozen potential factors. It seems more likely to me that it's something other than CO2/temperature considering the species' history. On the other hand it could well be that during the times when the temperature was changing rapidly, most of the corals died off, leaving behind only the most resistant ones.
- dtgriscom 4y ago
  Excepting mass extinction events (impacts, supervolcanoes), have the conditions ever changed as quickly as are now?
- Retric 4y ago
  Evolution doesn’t have a great memory, we used to live in the ocean and now drowning is a real threat. Plenty of land mammals have gone back to aquatic living but they don’t regain gills so they still go back to the surface. The transition from feet to fins also took a very long time. So yea massive changes over 50 years means mass die offs and even extinctions. Assuming we eventually stop introducing massive changes and in 5 million years aquatic ecosystems will be fine, but we care about the short term.
  - MichaelCollins 4y ago
    > Plenty of land mammals have gone back to aquatic living but they don’t regain gills so they still go back to the surface. Breathing air is probably a superior system anyway, since mammalian fish utterly dominate gilled fish in nearly every respect. What gilled fish can dive like a sperm whale, acquire the bulk of a blue whale, or the agility of a dolphin?
    - Retric 4y ago
      What’s the point of diving like a sperm whale if you can just stay at the bottom of the ocean? As to overall performance the fastest swimmer is the Indo-Pacific Sailfish clocked at 68 mph. The blue whale is more bulky and faster than a whale shark, but young whale sharks can simply dive too low to be at significant threat from Okra. So breathing has real disadvantages.

220 points by Petiver 4y ago

ggm 4y ago

A similar programme for tank breeding and reseeding has been working in Queensland too. Getting tank corals to spawn is hard I believe. They're aiming to breed up higher temperature tolerant initial colony types to use for rebuilding bleached coral. Small instances are "seeded" onto a bad spot with a stable base matrix like a scaffold, to develop and grow. The matrix either decays over time or is stable and not a problem left in place. My understanding is that beneficial fish and related species are needed for the full biome to "work" and the seeded early coloniser types help these animals come in from surrounding areas. Without this work, a more rapid colonisation by less beneficial types can happen. Almost any remediation gets my upvote for trying, but at scale avoidance of the man made causes of coral death is much more important.

aliqot 4y ago
A lot of what hobbyists might not realize at first is the fact that coral are colonies of many many tiny organisms each performing their role, like zooxanthellae. These structures are enabled by entire ecosystems of ancillary bacteria on adjacent rock and the water column that maintains the equilibrium. A lot of the acute die off we see is not just warming waters or pollutants harming the coral itself, but primarily the damage to the unseen symbiotes, food sources, and bacterial colonies that are part of the coral's life cycle. With few exceptions if you have a piece of coral in your tank and it dies, it's your fault. They're immortal otherwise when left undisturbed. Some common pet store coral like pulsing xenia, green star polyps or zooanthids will grow in spite of the worst conditions to the point where they become invasive. All you need is a single polyp and most coral specimens we're familiar with will eventually grow and spread as far as the ecosystem will allow. Deep deep layered sand beds, areas of stagnant water and high flow water, macroalgae, various gas exchange areas, copepods, amphipods, all of it is part of a holistic picture that is needed for these bacteria to be happy. This process can take years of what I call 'strategic neglect' by not messing with the deeper darker anoxic layers of sand and algae. If those bacteria are happy the coral has no choice but to thrive. I hope this new effort to get the coral to spawn without subdivision succeeds so that future generations can see the same things we once saw, and the life it creates below.
- ggm 4y ago
  I'm sure you know this but for others; the "tanks" here are university lab near industrial scale plastic 10,000l tanks, not glass walled home aquarium tanks. Same same, but they know what their doing and what complex symbiotic organisms coral are. UQ's Heron Island has table rigs under lighting but on the mainland at JCU and I believe the CSIRO it's pretty massive. Australian uni Tank farmed corals have spawned in the same lunar phase as reefs for a while I believe, it's getting them to do it more frequently and doing the "IVF" like stuff, and implanting on scaffolding which is hard. Not a coral scientist. I welcome corrections
  - jimmySixDOF 4y ago
    Another place doing some important research is KAUST above Jeddah on the Red Sea. They are working with one of the Barrier Reef photogrammetry capture programs to monitor coral and doing replacement testing etc due to higher average water temps so a coral evolved to withstand Red Sea summer might be a fit for the more recently hotter QLD water. I hope something like this works one of the most amazing things I have ever seen was a spawning event years ago. Coral is the canary in the coal mine of Climate Change and if we can't help them adapt then I am afraid we might not be able to either.
  - liveoneggs 4y ago
    You can do it at home with a lunar light, temperature controller, and a curtain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9jsNTyeGNk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9jsNTyeGNk
  - somishere 4y ago
    AIMS are the main org I know of that are doing lab-based synchronised spawning in Australia, and more interestingly IMO spawning/survivorship under future conditions. SeaSim is fairly well known here and tends to get national media attention around the annual mass coral spawning event (expected early next month). https://www.aims.gov.au/about/facilities/national-sea-simulator https://www.aims.gov.au/about/facilities/national-sea-simula...
  - Maursault 4y ago
bumblebritches5 4y ago

baxtr 4y ago

Tangential: It’s amazing to realize that corals are in fact animals. Though coral may look like a colorful plant growing from roots in the seafloor, it is actually an animal. Source: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/coral https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/coral

eloisius 4y ago
Or colonies of millions of tiny animals. They are indeed fascinating and beautiful. I just went diving this morning and I’m in my way to a second dive right now. The effects of bleaching are visible, and it pains me to think that in my lifetime they could disappear.
- baxtr 4y ago
  You're checking HN while you are on the way to your second dive this morning? Wow.
  - eloisius 4y ago
    It’s pretty bad…
    - baxtr 4y ago
      I feel you... And now put down that damn phone and enjoy the dive! :D
      - daniel-cussen 4y ago
- UncleOxidant 4y ago
  Colonies of millions of tiny animals that incorporate plants into their tissues in order to generate energy from the sun.
4y ago

ghotli 4y ago

I can't remember the last time I read an article that made me feel more like quitting my career and starting a new one.

baxtr 4y ago
What made you feel this way? Because you feel like your time could be "better" spent?
steve_adams_86 4y ago
Hakai has a way of doing this. Their research in British Columbia is literally awe inspiring at times, and they’re experts at writing and presenting it.
bjelkeman-again 4y ago
If you feel that way you seriously should consider it. I have often had people tell me that they want to change, but then gone on to explain all the reasons why they can’t. There are many very interesting opportunities out there.

ips1512 4y ago

Nice

trash3 4y ago

liveoneggs 4y ago

You can breed acroporas (elkhorn is a type of acropora) in your home and the list of species where spawning triggers are being documented is increasing. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jamie+craggs+coral https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jamie+craggs+co... Light pollution is (yet another) a big deal problem for the reef.

dtgriscom 4y ago
"The New Ronco Spawn-o-Matic! Just point it at your aquarium, pull the trigger, and shazam! Gametes everywhere!"

MeteorMarc 4y ago

How about corals fixating CO2 from the atmosphere?

andai 4y ago

I've been wondering something. So corals evolved 535 million years ago. During this time the earth went through large fluctuations in temperature (ocean temperatures of 35 degrees, Antarctica being tropical), and CO2 concentrations over twice as high as we have now. But supposedly they can't handle the current conditions? That makes no sense to me. Are the causes of coral bleaching actually understood? Wikipedia lists a dozen potential factors. It seems more likely to me that it's something other than CO2/temperature considering the species' history. On the other hand it could well be that during the times when the temperature was changing rapidly, most of the corals died off, leaving behind only the most resistant ones.

dtgriscom 4y ago
Excepting mass extinction events (impacts, supervolcanoes), have the conditions ever changed as quickly as are now?
Retric 4y ago
Evolution doesn’t have a great memory, we used to live in the ocean and now drowning is a real threat. Plenty of land mammals have gone back to aquatic living but they don’t regain gills so they still go back to the surface. The transition from feet to fins also took a very long time. So yea massive changes over 50 years means mass die offs and even extinctions. Assuming we eventually stop introducing massive changes and in 5 million years aquatic ecosystems will be fine, but we care about the short term.
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  > Plenty of land mammals have gone back to aquatic living but they don’t regain gills so they still go back to the surface. Breathing air is probably a superior system anyway, since mammalian fish utterly dominate gilled fish in nearly every respect. What gilled fish can dive like a sperm whale, acquire the bulk of a blue whale, or the agility of a dolphin?
  - Retric 4y ago
    What’s the point of diving like a sperm whale if you can just stay at the bottom of the ocean? As to overall performance the fastest swimmer is the Indo-Pacific Sailfish clocked at 68 mph. The blue whale is more bulky and faster than a whale shark, but young whale sharks can simply dive too low to be at significant threat from Okra. So breathing has real disadvantages.