The Coral Reef Alliance

Coral Restoration Alone Likely Won’t Be Enough to Save Coral Reefs. That’s Why We Focus on Reducing Marine Threats. We address overfishing, minimize water pollution, support local communities, and lead cutting-edge research on coral adaptation to climate change…but we don’t generally work on coral restoration projects. Our decision comes down to the fact that coral restoration alone is unlikely to save reefs from our planet’s warming temperatures if we don’t reduce local stressors. “Our previous research shows that corals have the best chance of adapting to the effects of climate change, like warming ocean temperatures, if there is high genetic diversity and if habitat is protected from other local stressors.” says Dr. Lisa McManus, the study’s co-author and a CORAL partner. “Repopulating a coral reef with corals that have similar genetic makeups could reduce an area’s natural genetic diversity, and therefore make it harder for all corals to adapt to climate change.” Read more: https://coral.org/en/blog/coral-restoration-likely-wont-be-enough-to-save-coral-reefs-thats-why-we-focus-on-reducing-marine-threats/