The climate is changing too rapidly for coral reefs to adapt, so researchers in Australia and Hawaii have proposed a novel solution: help them adapt faster.
The researchers call the approach "assisted evolution." In a sense, it’s the same thing we’ve been doing with domesticated plants and animals for thousands of years, cross-breeding organisms for desirable traits. But the idea of using these methods for the purposes of conservation is new. The traits that scientists are looking for aren’t things like faster growth or more edible meat, but the ability to survive in a changing environment. The researchers admit their approach is "extremely novel" and view the project as a proof of concept, according to the paper published in PNAS...
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