Coral Reefs That Can Finally Beat the Heat, WILD HOPE
Coral reefs around the world are threatened by rising ocean temperatures, but hope is growing off the coast of Hawaii. There, researchers at the Coral Resilience Lab selectively breed corals to withstand everincreasing amounts of heat stress. Corals are tiny animals that have a mutually beneficial relationship with an algae that lives within their cells. When stressed by heat, many expel their algae and turn white known as bleaching losing their main source of food and often dying within days. Half of all coral has been lost since the 1950s. But some corals do survive these bleaching events, and theyve become the focus of Kira Hughes and her teams work. By selectively breeding the coral that doesn t bleach, Kira hopes they can increase their resilience from one generation to the next. To scale up their efforts, Kiras team collects coral pieces that have naturally broken off in the ocean. With the help of volunteers, they prep and test these corals, and eventually replant the hea
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