Award: OCE-1736736

Predicting the global location of heat tolerant corals: Palau patch reefs as a general model:OCE-1736736 Stephen Palumbi, PI, Stanford University Project outcomes:Coral reefs are in steep decline around the world,as a result of local pollution and over-fishing, and global heatwaves exaggerated by climate change. Yet on most reefs, there are some corals that are much more tolerant than others even different colonies of the same species on the same reef can show very different sensitivity to heatwaves (as in the photo of a pair of Palau corals). Our project focused on these heat tolerant colonies as a potential asset for future reef development and sought to learn how to 1) quickly and cheaply find heat resistant corals, 2) test if they could be successfully transplanted to other reefs while retaining their heat resistance, and 3) test several genetic mechanisms in the coral or its symbiont for these heat resistant superpowers. First, we developed a set of streamlined test tanks to apply standardized daily heat pulses to coral colonies, and record their response. These tanks are designed to be inexpensive and simple to use, so that they can be used in many different settings, such as in this image of our tanks at a training center in Belize.They can be used to assay many different species and include streamlined data collection tools. As a result they can allow local students and researchers to be trained and then employed to play a strong role in global coral heat resilience monitoring. This has led us to us develop training and partnership programs across the coral world to develop a wide cadre of local research team. Second, we mapped coral heat resistance and found widespread occurrence of highly heat resistant colonies in Palau. 90% of reefs we surveyed housed at least some heat resistant colonies, meaning that the inventory of heat resistance in much higher than thought before. In addition, there were some reef complexes with particularly high levels of heat resistance (such as Palau Patch Reef 27 in the photo). These discoveries are being found in other reef regions as well, and help point towards a set of solutions to some part of the current reef crisis, including marine protected areas centered on heat resistance and restoration plans that use heat resistant corals. Third, we developed quick and inexpensive coral transplantation tools to ask how durable coral heat resistance is. When transplanted to other close-by, local reefs, most of the heat resistant corals retain their heat resistance. This opens up the possibility of using local transplanted corals in heat resistant restoration. However, some of the most heat resistant corals grew at a slower pace than did less heat resistant colonies. This tradeoff means that it is critical to protect more than just the very most heat resistant colonies. To dig into mechanisms, we sequenced the full genomes of 283 corals that we had heat resistance and growth data for. These new data were designed to test for the genes in corals and their symbionts that help them to become durably heat resistance. The analysis shows that it is the interaction of genes in the coral and genes in the symbiont that is the most powerful for finding genetic control of heat resistance. The summer of 2023 was the hottest on record in many coral reef zones in the world, and the summer of 2024 will likely be worse. These heatwaves have further damaged corals from Australia to the Caribbean, and have wiped out decades of work on coral gardening and restoration. Our research helps uncover the current standing stock of heat resistant corals in order for them to be protected, grown, replicated and managed. We have targeted this approach toward coral reef areas in many parts of the world that can be studied by local students and researchers, linked together in a community of Coral Resilience Corps. As a result, our NSF funding has helped sparked the growth of a movement toward reef management, protection and restoration that could help strengthen reef resilience as climate change is controlled as reversed. Video highlighting the diversity and coral cover of heat resistant reefs in Palau The Reefs ofAimeliik https://vimeo.com/639338604 Koro-based radiointerview about our work on heat resistant corals in Palau Palau interview July 26: https://youtu.be/7yVl2iqkddw Talk for the magazine WIRED about using technology like coral testing to help reverse theSixth Extinction: WIRED talk: https://www.wired.com/video/watch/re-wired-green-2022-steve-palumbi-discusses-the-6th-recovery-and-how-technology-can-help-accelerate-it A zoom lecture designed to attract a little more attention to our work on corals around the world through the simple method of dressing like a dinosaur: T rex explains coral reefs https://vimeo.com/473166665/052e621be6 The next step in our research as led to the Super Reefs consortium, applying these discoveries all over there coral world. Super Reefs field Notebook December 2023 - https://storycats.ggfilms.com/super-reefs-field-notebook/index.html Last Modified: 04/27/2024 Submitted by: StephenRPalumbi