A biologist from the University of Konstanz, along with an international group of researchers, calls for extending the natural adaptive capacity of corals through nature-based approaches.

"We call for an approach that follows a “nature does it best” philosophy. What solutions have corals developed to increase their stress tolerance, how do we study them, and how can we best use them?" Professor Christian R Voolstra from the Department of Biology at the University of Konstanz, Germany

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A global team of scientists across the globe are on the lookout. They are searching our ocean far and wide for naturally resilient coral reefs. These “super corals” have two critical characteristics separating them from other corals: they can handle rising ocean temperatures and they can bounce back from the impacts of ocean warming.

To find these heat-tolerant corals, the team is using an experimental system called the Coral Bleaching Automated Stress System, or CBASS for short. Think of CBASS as an ultra-portable box with similar principles as a cardiac stress test. Researchers graft fragments of coral in the field and simultaneously expose them to varying temperatures to test their bleaching response. At the end of the 18-hour process, the scientists can see which coral colonies are resilient to higher ocean temperatures and which ones aren’t.

“We’re basically putting corals on a racetrack and watching how they perform,” said Christian Voolstra, a professor at Konstanz University of Germany. “The good sprinters will also be good runners and, as such, will perform better during episodes of long-term heat stress on coral reefs.”

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