<
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-far-should-humans-go-to-help-species-adapt>
"Moseby’s is one of a growing number of conservation projects that proceed from
the premise it’s no longer enough to protect species from change. Humans are
going to have to intervene to help species change.
More than 1,000 miles northeast of Arid Recovery, at the Australian Institute
of Marine Science’s National Sea Simulator, near the city of Townsville,
researchers are working to produce corals that can survive warmer temperatures.
The effort involves crossing corals from the central part of the Great Barrier
Reef, where the water is cooler, with corals from the northern part of the
reef, where it’s hotter. The offspring of these crosses are then subjected to
heat stress in the labs of the Sea Simulator. The hope is that some of them
will prove better able to withstand higher temperatures than either of their
parents. As part of this effort, researchers are also subjecting generations of
coral symbionts to heat stress, in an attempt to select for hardier varieties.
(The symbionts—tiny algae from the genus Symbiodinium—provide corals with much
of the food they need to build reefs.) The approach has been dubbed “assisted
evolution.”"
Via The RISKS Digest Volume 32 Issue 57:
http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/32/57#subj4
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
