珊瑚Gene Bank
The珊瑚恢复基金会™沿佛罗里达州南部海岸建造了一个大量的加勒比珊瑚基因库。目前，珊瑚的水下天堂在10种中占有303种珊瑚基因型，包括大型礁石建造珊瑚Orbicella faveolata， 和球虫annularis.
Left to grow for几个世纪球虫,普通名字星珊瑚，达到山区的尺寸。不同的恒星物种在支柱，板和巨石中生长。随着珊瑚的生长，它留下了一个岩石的骨骼，成为新珊瑚殖民的基础。
These corals are coming under threat in Florida, and are now listed as threatened or endangered. The珊瑚恢复基金会is looking beyond branching Staghorn and Elkhorn horn corals, branching out to include critically important reef-building species like球虫，为未来保护健康的珊瑚礁生态系统。
Why Gene Banks are Important
A gene bank is a small sample of wild corals with diverse genetic backgrounds. Having many different geno(types) of coral (from the same species), allows for geneticallyconscious restoration and resilient reefs for the future.
珊瑚的有性繁殖，用于使用珊瑚修复，是新兴的必要性。珊瑚可以通过克隆无性繁殖，这就是我们可以将一块珊瑚碎片分成几块，它们本身都可以成长为一个新的珊瑚殖民地。即使到一个息肉状态正确的单个息肉，息肉也将继续克隆自己，并且可以出现一个新的殖民地。
但是，所有这些克隆都有缺点。相同的克隆具有较低的弹性，这意味着它们都可能受到同一疾病的影响，或者更容易受到温度和光波动的影响。这使得珊瑚很难适应迅速变化的环境，并且可能会对它们进行一次打击的风险。
By collecting, and safeguarding many samples of multiple genotypes, the sexual coral spawn offsprings are genetically superior to a mono-coral crop.
新设计
Habitat conditions are key to growing a healthy happy coral. The Coral Restoration Foundation Restoration Program Associates, Dan Burdeno, and Tommy Paige have designed a new coral growth platform called the Boulder Coral Tree, using materials already used in different underwater projects.
巨石树的设计旨在在看起来像面向表面的塑料板或陶瓷磁盘上保持obricella碎片。这些平台被悬挂在基板上的可调节绳索的浮标悬挂。巨石树有十个分支可以拥有60 - 120个珊瑚碎片。
Although I have yet to visit this in person, the Coral Restoration Foundation website says their nurseries have become a vital repository of genetic diversity and that some of these genotypes can now only be found within their underwater gene bank.
They have collected exhaustive information on all nine of our coral species including genotypes, collection location, phenotypic observations from within our nurseries, locations within nurseries, and genetic sequencing data. And what is very exciting, is they plan to make the information publicly accessible through a genetic database.
From various pictures we’ve seen of the Coral Restoration coral gardens, I took a guess at the ten species of coral in their seed bank.球虫annularis, Orbicella faveolata, Acropora cervicornis, Acropora palmata, Siderastrea siderea, Psuedodiploria strigosa, Diploria labyrinthiformis, Dendrogyra cylindrus, Montastrea cavernosa, Porites furcata,or type of branchingPorites.
Hopefully, very soon we will see one of every Caribbean coral species represented in the gene bank. Maybe one day we can ever see fragments of Caribbean coral in reef aquariums across the USA to further protect native coral populations.[CRF]
Make sure to visit the Coral Restoration website for more information. Want to check out these new boulder coral trees? How about have a hand at cleaning them and preventing algal competition?加入CRF今天进行潜水计划！
