Saving the Reefs
 

OK.
I have been reading about the continued decline of tropical reefs around the world. Mostly due to climate change or the general sloppiness of human interactions. I am thinking temp, salinity, co2, o2, etc..

I had also read recently where some researchers were taking lab cultured and hybridized corals that had been bred to deal with these new conditions better (heat tolerant, etc.), and it got me thinking, this is really a good way to deal with this, and in the end, most viable for success.

And then I thought about my experiences with aquaculture and that there are hundreds or thousands of coral species being knowingly or unknowingly experimented on by home scientists like you and me.

I also think that a more robust variation of some species of coral probably exists right now in a tank somewhere. Or that with a scale of 100's or 1000's of experimenters, that one could be found.

I am also assuming I am not the first to think of this.
Does anyone know of something like this? Where field researchers are leveraging a community like this or others to facilitate solutions to this problem?

To me, the start would be with a database (I always go to the data first) to catalog tanks and culturing operations. Does something like that exist here or anywhere?

In terms of coral species in the hobby, there are only about 20 or so reef building SPS. There are many color variations among these species.
Many reef building coral are not colorful and do not enter the trade.
We have no idea if those aquacultured coral can adapt to the life in ocean.



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