AIMS researchers did cross-fertilise the species from northern sites and southern sites in climate-controlled tanks of the National Sea Simulator in Townsville, the world’s most advanced research aquarium.
AIMS divers are now assessing the feasibility of the Assisted Gene Flow technique on the central Great Barrier Reef
Protecting the Great Barrier Reef from the impact of climate change is high on the agenda of Australian environmental scientists.
Researchers at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) are currently trialling a mixed breed of corals, which they obtained by cross-fertilising species from warmer northern reefs that already had survived heatwaves with varieties from cooler central parts.
The hope is that these cross-breeds will have inherited heat tolerant genes from their northern parents, and will then pass on these genes to their offspring.
According to the AIMS, early results from the trial are promising, as hundreds of juvenile offsprings have survived being transplanted on the GBR.
It's a first large-scale test of a technique called Assisted Gene Flow as a potential management tool for corals threatened by climate change, the AIMS announced.
"We found many of the warm-adapted corals have survived the now quite cool waters of the central Reef,” AIMS researcher Dr Kate Quigley said.