ABSTRACT:

This seminar will focus on the role of genetics in restoration, resilience and adaptation of corals and coral reefs. DNA forms the fundamental blueprint of function, form and fitness in all living organisms and corals are no exception. On all stressed or degraded coral reefs, it is apparent that there are winners and losers, even at the intra-species level, which proves to us that some colonies simply do better than others. With all other things being equal, this striking difference between life and death is likely to be found in the precise order of the DNA molecules within each individual colony. Spanning subjects such as population genetics and reef connectivity, random (and not so random) migration, selection and adaptation and the genetics of active restoration, my research, and the subject of this talk is simply about the genetics of survival in corals.