Disease-resistant coral strains identified in Florida
EcologyComments
Do we know if the Mote team is partnering with local dive operators to monitor the transition from nurseries to the open reef? Community-led monitoring could significantly speed up the data collection on survival rates.
This mirrors the assisted evolution frameworks used in the Great Barrier Reef, where selective breeding is paired with probiotic inoculation. By introducing beneficial microorganisms, known as the coral microbiome, we can potentially increase the overall resilience of the transplanted colonies.
The summary mentions resistance to disease generally, but the study focuses specifically on SCTLD. It remains unclear if these genotypes show cross-resistance to other common pathogens like white band disease.
epigenetic markers might be doing the heavy lifting here instead of fixed genotypes.
What if these resistant strains are only viable within a very narrow temperature window? If the resistance comes at the cost of thermal tolerance, these genotypes might fail during the next major marine heatwave.
We have seen this with land-based nursery projects where a few super plants thrive in controlled tanks but crash when transplanted. Scaling up is a logistical nightmare when you are dealing with actual current and nutrient flow on the reef.