Rare Corals Inbreed To Survive Extinction

Insync

-Staff

By Staff

Wednesday, October 22, 2008, 13:53

To survive against their way towards extinction, a new research has suggested that Corals may be able to cross breed due to the shortage of mates of their own type.

The finding, released by scientists at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, has raised hopes for the ability of the world"s corals to withstand the rigors of changing climates and human impacts.

In the view of leading author Zoe Richards, coral reefs worldwide face a variety of marine and land-based threats and hundreds of corals are now on the road towards extinction.

The high level of inbreeding and limited population in the rare corals face the risk of extinction than the most commonly found ones as they are unable to adapt to the changing conditions.

According to Zoe Richards, "When we studied some particularly rare species of Acropora (staghorn corals), which you might expect to be highly vulnerable to extinction, we found some of them were actually hybrids – in other words they had cross-bred with other Acropora species. This breaks all the traditional rules about what a species is"

By hybridising, the rare corals draw on genetic variation in other species, making them adaptable to changing conditions. "At this stage how it came about and who the breeding partners are isn"t entirely clear, but what is evident is that rare corals previously thought vulnerable to extinction may have more ability to adapt than initially expected," explained Zoe.

According to Zoe, "When we looked at the genetic history of rare corals, we found that they exhibited unexpected patterns of genetic diversity."

The common Acropora corals occur mainly on reef crests, flats and slopes, whereas several of the rare species occupy more marginal habitats, such as the deeper or extremely shallow water zones where the common species do not grow.

Acropora are the main reef-builders throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and so of critical importance to the ability of reefs to cope with changing conditions. Zoe finally added that "This suggests that, rather than being the dying remnants of once-common species, they may actually be coral pioneers pushing into new environments and developing new traits by virtue of the interbreeding that has enabled them to survive there"