SeCoRe

August 12th, 2008 | by jg3 |

So the problem, essentially, is genetic diversity and the solution is get ‘em while you can.  Mike is being a go-getter.

The planet’s coral reef’s are under an immense amount of stress at the moment and much of them are collapsing and bleaching for various reasons, not the least of which is pollution.  [Note: I should come back and update this paragraph with links and figures so you don't think I'm just blathering.  For now just believe it, Earth Is Going Nova]

Key to building a reef are the large, hard corals that create the foundation that support the soft corals and build a permiable shelter for reef animals that current and waves can flow through.  One of the primary species of these large, hard corals is the Elkhorn.  Only, these guys are retreating with a quickness.  They’re dying off and collapsing all over the place and that’s bad for them, the other corals they support, the animals that they support, and the animals that they support.  Follow this far enough it leads back to you, bucko.

So, in the event of  a thourough collapse what are you going to do?  Propagate what is growing in the tanks of aquariums and zoos worldwide and re-start this population.  Sure.  Only, reef-heads are some of the most conservative (in the environmental sense of the word) people out there, so they don’t go grabbing chunks from the seafloor very often.  They typically propagate corals from chunks broken off in friends’ tanks (or stores’ tanks).  That’s great, but that means that what’s floating around in the hobby and trade has very little genetic diversity.  So how to you increase genetic diversity without breaking off chunks of the small percentage of remaining elkhorn?  Besides, elkhorn is a challenge to species to manage in captivity. Adult fragments — in addition to not wanting to disturb an already stressed ecosystem — also have a dismal survival record.  Most fragments die shortly after arrival to the aquarium.  So, establishing a captive population with adult frags really is impractical.

Easy, you gather fertilized Elkhorn coral eggs and raise them to adulthood.  Wait, easy?  Not quite.

Elkhorn spawn just once a year.  At night.  In the water (duh).  So collecting eggs is slightly more difficult than climbing up a tree and stealing them from a nest.  And once you’ve collected them you’ve got a whale of a problem with keeping them alive until they decide to settle out and start growing.

So Mike is participating in the SECORE project again this year, going down to Puerto Rico to do all that.  You can follow the action on the SECORE blog and read about the science behind all this in much more detail over on their website.  Go get ‘em Mike!

edit:  misspelled propagate; expanded on the difficulty of managing adult elkhorn. Thanks, Mike!

Filed under: ,

Related stuff

You must be logged in to post a comment.