Coral Reefs Are Resurfacing: A New Generation of Heat-Resistant Corals

Video of the Honduras corals emitting their genetic material into the ocean, taken from the Florida Aquarium.⁰

 Coral reefs are surrounding the marine and aquatic world for countless of years. Corals themselves provide plenty of resources and advantages for both the inside and outsides of the marine ecosystem. Furthermore, Coral reefs offer plenty of benefits across the ocean. Some that are important to mention are corals being a handy resource in the pharmaceutical world, where the compounds emitted and inherently existing in corals can prevent diseases and health complications, such as cancer or arthritis.¹ However, with how handy corals are, these special mineral-packed animals also have a lifespan, similar to humans.

That aforementioned lifespan is hastily decreasing due to changes in the world's climate. A robust and steady example of corals whitening would be corals seen in the likes of Florida, most specifically, the Elkhorn corals. Scientists in the coral restoration community have begun breeding the likes of the Elkhorn corals with another type of coral far across the likes of Florida itself, and that would be the Honduras.² The Honduran corals have shown greater performance in withstanding drastic heat changes compared to the corals surrounding the United States, just about 1 to 2 degrees hotter than what Florida's corals can outlast.³

Photo taken by the Coral Reef Alliance.⁴

Geneticists and scientists underwent a selective breeding process between Florida's corals and the Honduran corals. NPR states that researchers assigned them a pseudo designation, a "Flonduran coral.³" These corals proceeded to go through two trials. The first trial regarded relatively short-term exposure to hotter temperatures versus the second trial that held long-term exposures to hotter temperatures⁵. Results of this procedure shows that, despite how Florida's corals can be selectively bred with Honduras' corals, Honduras' corals heat-tolerable genetics are inheritable and can increase heat tolerance. Below is a parent-to-offspring regression figure from the experiment conducted by the researchers regarding the heritability of the Honduras' corals heat tolerance when bred with the Floridian corals.⁵

Taken from the Nature Communications website.⁵

This does excite those who are interested in aquatic sciences or have a fascination of corals, whether it is a result of tourism or displays done by recreational means.¹ In spite of this data, there is a caveat to this breeding trial. The result only specifies for a theoretical result of a one degree Celsius increase of these "Flonduran corals.³" There is plenty of work and research left to optimize and maintain the heat tolerance of these corals. Global warming is exponentially increasing in comparison to the mere progress of a one degree Celsius increase. This research could be proven futile, especially with research funding due to recent world affairs regarding the financial backing of science itself. With how expensive research of this degree is, it is no doubt that this amount of selective coral breeding could be put to a immediate halt, thus, more corals will see an increase in bleaching.

Nonetheless, a shine of hope beams down onto the marine ecosystem. Doctor Adriana Humanes from Newcastle University summarizes this, where she explicitly states that "a deeper understanding of how to determine which traits can be prioritized and genetically correlated is required.³" Genetics has proven to be a dramatically revolutionizing science, and geneticists are bound to figure out how to work with researchers to ensure that marine ecosystems can maintain a centuries-favorite animal.

References

⁰Sommer, L. (2025b, October 2). Scientists are using corals from other countries to save Florida’s dying reefs. KPBS Public Media. https://www.kpbs.org/news/environment/2025/10/01/scientists-are-using-corals-from-other-countries-to-save-floridas-dying-reefs

¹US Department of Commerce, N. O. and A. A. (2024, May 1). NOAA National Ocean Service Education. Corals Tutorial. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_corals/coral07_importance.html

²Sommer, L. (2025, October 1). Scientists are using corals from other countries to save Florida’s dying reefs. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2025/10/01/nx-s1-5547122/florida-coral-reef-climate-change

³Scientists have successfully bred corals to improve their heat tolerance. ERC. (2024, October 14). https://erc.europa.eu/news-events/news/scientists-have-successfully-bred-corals-improve-their-heat-tolerance

⁴Honduras. Coral Reef Alliance. (2023, April 4). https://coral.org/en/where-we-work/western-caribbean/honduras/

⁵Humanes, A., Lachs, L., Beauchamp, E., Bukurou, L., Buzzoni, D., Bythell, J., Craggs, J. R. K., de la Torre Cerro, R., Edwards, A. J., Golbuu, Y., Martinez, H. M., Palmowski, P., van der Steeg, E., Sweet, M., Ward, A., Wilson, A. J., & Guest, J. R. (2024, October 14). Selective breeding enhances coral heat tolerance to marine heatwaves. Nature News. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-52895-1