Thai researchers help corals cope with global warming risk

In response to this critical issue, Suchana Chavanich, deputy director of Chulalongkorn University’s Aquatic Resources Research Institute, has been conducting research on coral propagation since 2005 at the Sichang Marine Science Research and Training Station in Chonburi province.

The research found that corals are better able to adapt and survive under global warming conditions when raised in high-temperature environments from birth.

Naturally, corals reproduce in two ways:

• Sexual reproduction, where corals release eggs and sperm into the water during a full moon night. However, only about 0.001% of these fertilised eggs survive to become mature corals, due to predation and unsuccessful fertilisation.
• Asexual reproduction, where fragments of coral break off and, if they fall into a suitable environment, can grow into new coral colonies. This method has a survival rate of around 50%, though it results in lower genetic diversity.

Both natural reproduction methods are slow processes. In the context of global warming, sexual reproduction rates have dropped even further. “If we allow corals to regenerate naturally, they may not recover quickly enough to replace those lost to bleaching events, risking extinction in the near future,” Suchana explained.