Scientists Say They Have Bred Corals to Better Resist Warm Oceans

2024 · VOA Learning English

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1. Scientists say they have successfully reproduced corals to improve their resistance to warmer ocean temperatures.

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2. The latest effort is one of many that seeks to prevent major coral destruction events known as bleaching.

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3. The scientists blame the bleaching on ocean warming caused by climate change.

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4. Coral bleaching happens when the small ocean animals react to climate pressures by releasing algae organisms that provide them with energy and give them their color.

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5. If the bleaching is severe and long-lasting, corals can get sick and die.

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6. Scientists and environmental officials have warned major bleaching events are currently affecting ocean coral collections in many areas across the world.

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7. Many researchers link the continued warming of Earth’s oceans to climate changes related to human activities. In April, the U.S.

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8. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and International Coral Reef Initiative said at least 53 countries, territories, or local

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9. economies reported ongoing bleaching events since February 2023.

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10. The latest research aimed to reproduce corals that can become more resistant to warm ocean temperatures.

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11. To do this, the researchers used a method known as selective breeding. Scientists have long used this method to produce animals and plants with more desirable characteristics

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12. This process can produce living things that are better able to deal with, or tolerate, different environmental conditions.

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13. Selective breeding is now a main method used by scientists to study how the process can prevent ocean warming from killing off corals.

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14. The new research was led by scientists at Britain’s Newcastle University.

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15. The team recently reported their findings in a study appearing in the publication Nature Communications

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16. The study said their selective breeding methods resulted in improved heat tolerance of adult corals, even within a single generation.

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17. Scientists have for years been observing corals that show more heat-resistant qualities. These corals are used as the parents for new corals.

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18. The researchers said their experiments showed that breeding heat-tolerant characteristics into different corals could be a useful tool “to improve population

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19. resilience However, the team noted the method would likely not be enough by itself to effectively protect corals.

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20. This is because increasingly intense ocean warming is expected to continue if additional steps are not taken to reduce the worldwide effects of climate

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21. change. The scientists noted, therefore, that methods to reproduce heat-resistant corals must be a part of overall efforts that require “urgent climate action.”

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22. The research team’s experiments were carried out during a five-year project launched by Newcastle’s James Guest.

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23. The effort received financial support from the European Research Council. The team said it carried out selective breeding tests involving two different characteristics.

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24. The first sought to improve the tolerance to the release of a short, intense heat event over 10 days with a temperature rise of 3.5 degrees Celsius.

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25. The second tested results for a less intense, but long-term temperature rise of 2.5 degrees Celsius over one month.

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26. The study found that “selecting parent colonies for high rather than low heat tolerance increased the tolerance of adult offspring."

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27. The result was observed for corals experiencing either a short, intense heat event or a long-term temperature rise.

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28. The team estimated that about 25 percent of the increased heat tolerance was linked to genes passed down from parents of the corals.

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29. These genes can also be influenced by other selective breeding methods to produce heat-tolerance characteristics, the researchers said.

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30. Newcastle researcher Liam Lachs helped lead the study.

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31. He said in a statement the research clearly demonstrated that selective breeding can be a valuable tool in improving the health of corals influenced by warming oceans.

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32. However, he noted the tested methods are not a complete solution and that “more research is needed to maximize breeding results.

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33. The researchers said they plan next to lead efforts to carry out large experiments on corals in the wild to confirm the study results.

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34. These efforts would involve seeding selectively bred corals directly on ocean reefs or deploying corals raised in a laboratory. I’m Bryan Lynn.

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