Next Generation Coral Husbandry

The future of coral reefs hinges on their ability to adapt to changing conditions, a process which only occurs across generations. To study these effects, we continue to develop methods to increase efficiency and production of sexually produced corals. These pipelines can be used to produce ‘wild-type’ larvae and applied to our selective breeding framework to dramatically increase production of thermally tolerant corals for experiments and restoration.

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Ongoing Projects

  • Optimization of settlement density, light, flow, substrate conditioning and micro-herbivory for downstream survivorship

  • Optimization of larval rearing density

  • Development of automated larval rearing conicals

  • Development of future climate predictions for Hawaiʻi to create hyper-realistic treatments that will help accurately predict future outcomes

  • Development of chimerism as a source of thermal tolerance

Publications

Rahnke SA, Hancock J, Munk N, Caruso C, Drury C. Optimizing production of Montipora capitata for restoration: effects on abiotic conditions and light acclimation on juvenile survival and growth. Marine Ecology Progress Series (2022). Link.

Alexander G, J Hancock, AS Huffmyer, SB Matsuda. Larval thermal pre-exposure does not improve post-settlement thermal tolerance in a dominant reef-building coral, Montipora capitata. Coral Reefs (2022). Link.

Hancock J, Barrows A, Roome T, Huffmyer AS, Matsuda S, Munk N, Rahnke S, Drury C. Coral husbandry for ocean futures: leveraging abiotic factors to increase survivorship, growth and resilience in juvenile Montipora capitata. Marine Ecology Progress Series (2021). Link.

Huffmyer AS, Drury C, Majerova E, Lemus JD, Gates RD. Tissue fusion and enhanced genotypic diversity supports survival of juvenile Pocillopora acuta corals under thermal stress. Coral Reefs (2021). Link.