Despite their importance, coral reefs are declining at a devastating rate. Climate change, overfishing, declining water quality, pollution, and adverse coastal development are all jeopardizing the future of these underwater worlds. An estimated 14 percent of the world’s coral has been lost since 2009, and we are projected to lose up to 90 percent of coral by 2050 unless drastic action is taken to limit global warming.
“Coral reefs support a quarter of the world’s marine biodiversity which in turn supports people with food, income and protection,” says Edith Mertz, who recently completed a doctorate in global environmental studies at Sophia University, Japan. “Corals are an essential part of the marine environment, and losing them will have major economic and social consequences for many countries.”
To protect coral, marine biologists and conservationists are pushing globally for coral restoration projects. These projects seek to return coral to previously denuded or impacted areas, aiming to repopulate the reefs with coral and marine life. The problem with returning the same species of coral to an area where it has previously died is that without mitigating the cause of its death, at some point, it will face the same eventuality.
That’s where assisted migration comes in. Assisted migration involves moving a species in response to climate change when they are unable to move or adapt fast enough on their own. Assisted migration for some species has received growing interest over the years; however, little information is available on whether it is a viable option for coral reefs.
“Assisted migration is a very new field, it’s a very new topic, and even though there has been a lot of discussion about the ethics involved, very little assisted migrations have actually been done,” Mertz says. Mertz’s thesis, “Expert Opinions on Assisted Migration and Ecosystem Pushing in Coral Reefs,” is one of the few papers investigating the possibility of assisted migration for coral. “I think assisted migration is something we could do in certain places to save coral for the future, but we have to be realistic about it.”
Assisted migration remains controversial among conservation scientists, mainly due to the ethical considerations associated with moving species into different ecosystems and the increased risk of introducing disease or invasive species. Critics warn that species can carry pathogens or parasites into new environments, harming native populations, or even change genetic diversity.
Mertz, however, believes coral migration presents an opportunity.
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