Florida scientists induce spawning of Atlantic coral in lab for first
time
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[August 23, 2019]
By Lucas Jackson
APOLLO BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - Scientists
in Florida have artificially induced reproductive spawning of an
endangered Atlantic coral species for the first time in an aquarium
setting, a breakthrough they say holds great promise in efforts to
restore depleted reefs in the wild.
The achievement, announced this week at the Florida Aquarium in Apollo
Beach near Tampa, borrowed from lab techniques developed at the
London-based Horniman Museum and Gardens and used previously to induce
spawning of 18 species of Pacific coral, officials said.
Scientists plan to use their newly acquired expertise to breed new coral
colonies that can one day repopulate the beleaguered Florida reef
system, one of the largest in the world and one decimated by climate
change, pollution and disease in recent decades.
"This is truly the future of coral restoration in Florida and around the
world," Keri O'Neil, senior coral scientist at the Florida Aquarium,
told Reuters on Thursday. "We'll be able to do this for dozens of
species, and it opens up a world of new possibilities."
The newly cultivated corals should make for even stronger populations
than existing colonies because each individual will be bred with "new
genetics and new characteristics that may be more resistant to what is
happening on our reefs in the future," she said.
Inducing corals to release their eggs and sperm in aquarium tanks
involves controlling their artificial settings to mimic their natural
ocean habitat over the course of a yearlong reproduction cycle.
That means carefully regulating water temperature changes from summer to
winter, and using special lighting to imitate sunrise, sunset and even
lunar cycles that serve as biological cues for the coral in preparing to
spawn.
UNDER PRESSURE
Collaboration between the Florida and London facilities on the project
began in 2017 as the situation facing Florida's reefs grew more dire
because of the spread of a new coral affliction dubbed Stony Coral
Tissue Loss Disease.
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Chief coral scientist Keri O'Neill stares at an aquarium full of
Pillar coral (Dendrogyra cylindricus) just a few days before the
animals would successfully spawn in an aquarium for the first time
at a Florida Aquarium facility in Apollo Beach, Florida U.S., August
14, 2019. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
Atlantic pillar coral, which grows in colonies resembling finger- or
column-like structures, has been particularly susceptible to the
disease and is already classified as virtually extinct in the wild
because remaining male and female colonies are too scattered to
reproduce.
Corals are a type of marine invertebrate animal, typically living in
colonies of tiny sac-like polyps that feed by filtering seawater
through a set of tentacles surrounding a central mouth opening.
The polyps secrete a hard exoskeleton of calcium carbonate beneath
them that builds up over many years, forming coral reefs that serve
as key habitat for tropical sea life and help protect the shoreline
by absorbing wave energy from hurricanes and other storms.
Corals are sensitive to major changes in water temperature, and the
Florida Reef Tract, like other major reefs around the world, has
been under pressure from climate change for years as the sea grows
steadily warmer.
But the increased threat posed by Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease,
first identified in 2014, prompted changes in the law to allow
scientists to begin collecting fragments of protected coral for lab
research.
The 180 specimens gathered by the Florida Aquarium were collected
under permit from the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary by
scientists from the Keys Marine Laboratory and Nova Southeastern
University. Thirty of those were used in the spawning aquarium,
O'Neil said.
(Reporting by Lucas Jackson in Apollo Beach, Florida; Writing and
additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by
Peter Cooney)
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