Breeding Heat-Resilient Corals

Corals are vital to ocean health. Reefs engineered by coral polyps provide shelter and food to thousands of marine species, but they’re susceptible to rising water temperatures and can “bleach” under too much heat stress.

Hawaii’s Coral Resilience Lab is breeding corals that are resilient to these hotter ocean temperatures, even some not predicted to occur naturally due to climate change for over fifty years. These new corals and their offspring will someday repopulate reefs that can finally beat the heat.