Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA.
Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawaii, Kaneohe, HI, USA.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2019;1200:489-505. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-23633-5_16.
Throughout the world coral reefs are being degraded at unprecedented rates. Locally, reefs are damaged by pollution, nutrient overload and sedimentation from out-dated land-use, fishing and mining practices. Globally, increased greenhouse gases are warming and acidifying oceans, making corals more susceptible to stress, bleaching and newly emerging diseases. The coupling of climate change impacts and local anthropogenic stressors has caused a widespread and well-recognized reef crisis. While the establishment and enforcement of marine protected areas and preventing the acceleration of climate change are essential to management of these stressors, the inexorable impacts of climate change will continue to cause declines in genetic diversity and population viability. Gamete cryopreservation has already acted as an effective insurance policy to maintain the genetic diversity of many wildlife species, and has now begun to be explored and applied to coral conservation. Cryopreservation can act to preserve reef biodiversity and genetic diversity. To date, we have had a great deal of success with cryopreserving sperm from ~30 coral species of coral species. Moreover, we are creating the basic science to freeze and thaw coral larvae that can soon be used to help secure and restore reefs. Building on these successes, we have established genetic banks using frozen samples and use those samples to help mitigate threats to the Great Barrier Reef and other areas.
在全球范围内，珊瑚礁正以前所未有的速度退化。在当地，珊瑚礁受到污染、营养物质过载以及过时的土地利用、捕捞和采矿活动造成的沉积物的破坏。在全球范围内，温室气体的增加正在使海洋变暖并酸化，使珊瑚更容易受到压力、白化和新出现疾病的影响。气候变化的影响和当地人为压力源的耦合，导致了广泛而公认的珊瑚礁危机。虽然建立和执行海洋保护区以及防止气候变化的加速对于管理这些压力源至关重要，但气候变化的不可避免影响将继续导致遗传多样性和种群活力的下降。配子冷冻保存已经作为维持许多野生动物物种遗传多样性的有效保险政策，现在已经开始探索和应用于珊瑚保护。冷冻保存可以保护珊瑚礁生物多样性和遗传多样性。迄今为止，我们已经成功地从大约 30 种珊瑚物种中冷冻保存了精子。此外，我们正在创造冷冻和解冻珊瑚幼虫的基础科学，这些科学很快就可以用于帮助保护和恢复珊瑚礁。在这些成功的基础上，我们利用冷冻样本建立了基因库，并利用这些样本帮助缓解大堡礁和其他地区的威胁。
