Technology, science, and data continue to be central elements of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation’s ocean health and conservation portfolios. The true impact of this work happens when the data we collect is used to inform management and policy decisions to better protect threatened species. This is illustrated by the data delivered through Global FinPrint in 2020, the results of which are now gaining traction in securing new protective measures for sharks and rays.

The foundation continues its dedication to understanding the mechanics of coral reef resilience to better protect these ecosystems from the impacts of climate change. Coral reef research is essential in our race against time to increase coral heat tolerance and find new ways to restore degraded reefs.

Human Assisted Evolution of Corals Phase Two

Our coral resilience research grants date to 2014 when the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) and Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) launched significant work in human assisted evolution of coral reefs. This field of research aims to speed up the natural evolution of coral tolerance to heat stress. Although at that time, this research was considered risky and fringe, through proof of concept and an increased urgency to find solutions to the pressures of climate change, it has become a platform for research across the globe.

In the past five years, the science community has become supportive of and engaged with research in the assisted evolution of corals. This new field of research has been recognized as an important approach to coral reef restoration by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NASEM) and the Australian Federal Government.

AIMS Prof. Madeleine van Oppen says the research has, “spawned a movement across the world, with many scientists conducting active research on assisted evolution of corals. This is buying us more time for coral reefs until global warming is halted.”

This year, we began phase two of this work with both labs. In Australia, phase one showed promise in manipulating the single-cell symbiotic algae that line the coral polyp’s gut. Researchers grow the algae, expose it to rising ocean temperatures, and reintroduce it to corals to determine if it increases their overall heat tolerance in both the lab and field. Phase two will extend the research, introducing the corals with heat-evolved algae back to the field to determine the success rate and testing resilient algae in a wider range of coral species.

The Coral Resilience Lab in Hawaii will continue to work on speeding up the natural evolution of heat resilient corals by identifying thermally tolerant corals in the field, selectively breeding them in the lab, and then out planting the resilient coral offspring onto degraded reefs in Hawaii. They are also collecting millions of gametes from corals with unknown bleaching history and exposing the larvae and juveniles to anticipated future climate conditions as a "selective screen" to identify thermally tolerant corals for out-planting purposes. Furthermore, they are developing a transferrable decision-making framework so that coral resource managers worldwide can determine the ratio of thermal tolerance required to enhance coral resilience within a reef system and promote self-recovery into the future.

Partners: Australian Institute of Marine Sciences, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology

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Assisted Gene Flow for Thermal Tolerance in Corals Phase Two

This field of intervention is designed to speed up the natural exchange of genes between coral populations, so hybrid offspring have improved thermal tolerance.

During phase one, a consortium of scientists from Florida and the Caribbean successfully obtained coral embryos from endangered Caribbean Elkhorn Coral, by mixing cryopreserved sperm from Florida and Puerto Rico (low thermal tolerance) with newly released eggs from Curacao (high thermal tolerance). The embryos were sent to laboratory facilities to grow into juveniles. In phase two, the juvenile corals that grew from the embryos were tested for heat tolerance. Preliminary results show that all coral hybrids contained the heat tolerant algal symbiont, and all cohorts showed resistance to the higher temperature exposure.

Partners: Mote Marine Laboratory

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Larval Restoration of Coral Reefs

This research intends to scale up coral reef restoration by using natural coral mass spawning events to deploy millions of coral larvae on degraded reefs. The pilot phase showed great promise in challenging two major barriers to coral reef restoration. First, once a reef has been degraded and overtaken by seaweed, which is happening around the world, it does not recover; and second, only one percent of baby corals survive by the end of their first year. 

While previous research around removing seaweed did not show success, our grantee made a significant breakthrough by pairing seaweed removal with the settlement of new, fortified coral larvae onto the reef. Unlike removal alone, this combination led to an increase in new baby coral settlement. The grantee also discovered that by giving supplemental nutrition to the coral larvae while they are held in floating pens at sea, the survival rate of coral recruits in the field increased from 1 percent to 10 percent. The new three-year grant builds on results from the pilot phase to increase survival rates and scale up the application of this work to build the long-term health of previously degraded coral reef ecosystems.

Partner: Southern Cross University

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Global Search for Heat-Resilient Corals  

Understanding the genetic basis of heat tolerance in corals and developing genetic markers for field deployment will allow for more targeted conservation and restoration actions in coral reefs. Based on the completed pilot phase, this new three-year grant will identify “super corals” in four different geographies, that have evolved naturally to be more heat tolerant and resilient. The process includes a three-step approach.  First, the Coral Bleaching Automated Stress System (CBASS) assay, a portable lab that functions as a “cardiac stress test” for corals, allows researchers to identify resilient coral colonies. Then, thermal response to the entire coral organism goes through a genetic analysis, and, finally, each coral’s thermal response is analyzed through an integrated Systems Biology approach. These naturally resilient “super corals” can then be prioritized for more targeted conservation and restoration activities and further studied to understand what makes a coral more heat tolerant.    

Partners: Konstanz University, Old Dominion University, Institute for Systems Biology, Pennsylvania State University, Australian Institute of Marine Science

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New Data-Driven Protections for Sharks

When the results of Global FinPrint were published in 2020, the comprehensive underwater video survey of sharks and rays in coral reef systems revealed that sharks are functionally extinct in many reefs. The data collected from 58 countries and 371 reefs covered 59 shark species and ware available for organizations to use to inform local shark recovery and management. The goal of this multi-national survey was to catalyze an increase in the number of reefs and nations where there are healthy levels of reef sharks and rays.

In 2021, the impact of the FinPrint report began to ripple through ocean communities. The data not only showed the alarming decline of sharks, but also pointed to successful measures that countries had taken to protect them. The enforcement of Marine Protected Areas and fishing gear restrictions went a long way towards sustaining shark populations in regulated waters. The data also contributed to several shark species securing elevated placement on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species – the world’s most comprehensive inventory of the conservation status of biological species. These successes spurred more countries to take action in their own ecosystems.

"It is well established that people have had a profound negative effect on sharks, but what Global FinPrint emphasizes is that people can also have an equally strong positive impact,” said Demian Chapman, co-research lead for the program. “When people pull together and put in certain shark management measures, Global FinPrint shows that it works. What is really inspiring is that nations that we sampled where there were 'red flags' for sharks, such as Belize, are now stepping up to put these management measures into play.”

Scientists continue to use Global FinPrint data to better understand the importance of sharks on reefs, and to engage locally and globally to help protect and rebuild their populations.

Partners: Florida International University, Stonybrook University, Australia Institute of Marine Science, Curtin University, Dalhousie University