A new report was recently shared about two prominent coral reef ecologist’s plan to help out wild reefs with a hands-on approach to reef management that sounds eerily close to what we have been doing in our aquariums for decades. Through the years hundreds of peer reviewed publications have looked at the resistance and resilience of various corals, species, zooxanthellae strains and how this translates in corals’ ability to acclimate to a warming climate.
All of this environmental research has built up a pretty decent picture of what corals are capable of. Now, two highly resespected coral scientists, Dr. Ruth Gates of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology and Dr. Madeleine van Oppen of the Australian Institute of Marine Science think we know enough about corals to start giving corals a helping hand through a method ofassisted evolution.
用研究人员的话说，“这种观察表明，在适当的情况下，适应或适应可能会在相对较短的时间范围内发生。如果我们能够促进和增强几种珊瑚物种的这种自然适应能力，那么这可能有助于在面对当前和未来的气候变化时提高珊瑚礁的韧性。”
从某种意义上说，这就是我们礁石水族馆业余爱好者多年来一直在礁石坦克中所做的事情。快速生长且对我们水族馆环境变化有弹性的珊瑚是传播和共享的珊瑚，并继续适应更多的礁石坦克。盖茨（Gates）和范·奥佩（Van Oppen）提出的本质上是在大规模且更加复杂的规模上演奏“礁石水族徒”。
作为珊瑚礁，我们知道这种方法可能会导致一些非常棒的珊瑚花园。希望那些有韧性的珊瑚有机会获得巨大的生殖成功，因此这些艰难的珊瑚可以散布广泛，而珊瑚礁则有一个战斗的机会来环境我们迅速变化的气候。[[目标]
