Hilarious, this is spot on: www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

At last...Wordle in 1 today 😎

New Coral Reef article alert ftom the Coralassist Lab! rdcu.be/evbqK showing the dramatic effects of grazing pressure on early coral survivorship. @newcastleuni.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu

There are many lies told by politicians when it comes to immigration in the UK, but none is bigger than the claim that it’s all too easy: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

My island of strangers: a poem | Michael Rosen

UK wins £500m in science grants from EU Horizon scheme after Brexit lockout

This blog really resonated with me describing the unseen work behind the papers that we publish: www.springernature.com/gp/researche...

Explore some of the wide-ranging research on climate and coral reefs published in our journal 👇 latitude.plos.org/2025/03/cora...

New on the Latitude blog: a round-up of some of the wide-ranging and interdisciplinary research and commentary on climate and coral reefs published in PLOS Climate. latitude.plos.org/2025/03/cora...

**2 weeks** left to apply - come join me and @lec-reefs.bsky.social at Lancaster University.

New paper alert! Congrats to Ruben de la Torre Cerro on publishing the first chapter of his PhD on how moonlight-darkness cycles affect spawning timing in an Acropora coral: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

RESEARCH: Higher spatial resolution is not always better: evaluating satellite-sensed #sea surface temperature products for a west Pacific #coral reef system. Coauthored by @simondonner.bsky.social r . www.nature.com/articles/s41... via @natureportfolio.bsky.social

Attention coral reef scientists...

OK, I'm biased... but I'm a big fan of this new paper by @liamlachs.bsky.social, which emerged from his visit to UBC. The message: don't just grab the highest resolution data. You need to evaluate what is suitable for your specific location and research question. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🪸The Coral Reef Feed hopes to build a Bluesky community of scientists, students, managers, enthusiasts, communicators, artists, etc. that care about coral reefs and climate change bsky.app/profile/did:...

Corals need to be close to their partners to reproduce, just a few meters. This has implications for bleaching event recovery which can leave individuals stranded, hampering reef re-population. Story: www.uq.edu.au/news/article... #coralreef #globalwarming #oceanhealth #biodiversity

Paper was led by Adriana Humanes, Liam Lachs & James Guest Part of the fruitful Coralassist Lab - PICRC collaboration, with support from the Horniman Museum, Uni. Of Exeter, Derby Uni. & Uni. Victoria Funded by ERC, with support from UKRI / NERC (9/9)

Our study shows selective breeding is feasible, yet potential heat tolerance gains are modest compared to expected future warming. R&D is needed to optimise breeding interventions and maximise positive impacts. Ultimately, reefs still depend on rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. (8/9)

Offspring bred for short-stress tolerance did not show evidence of enhanced tolerance to the long-term stress that more closely emulates marine heatwaves. To maximise coral fitness in the face of climate change, care will be needed when selecting which traits to breed for. (7/9)

Nature vs. Nurture: The heritability of heat tolerance traits was ~0.2-0.3. This means these traits have a substantial genetic basis but are also heavily influenced by other non-genetic factors. (6/9)

Offspring whose parents had high (rather than low) heat tolerance showed an enhanced ability to withstand the type of heat stress for which they were bred. They can withstand the heat stress for a longer duration before the onset of bleaching and mortality. (5/9)

Then offspring were reared in an ocean nursery until they reached reproductive maturity themselves at 3-4 years old. At this stage, the offspring were exposed to the same heat stress tests that were used years before to select their parents. (4/9)

Selective breeding was conducted for the bleaching survival response of wild corals to both: - a short-term ~1-week +3.5 °C heat stress - long-term ~1-month +2.5 °C heat stress (3/9)

Marine heatwaves are triggering mass coral bleaching & mortality events. Whether corals can adapt fast enough remains uncertain, leading to calls for assisted evolution. Since 2017, the Coralassist Lab & PICRC Palau have been testing whether selective breeding is a feasible option. (2/9)

📢New Paper Alert📢 Selective breeding enhances tolerance of corals to marine heatwaves Take-home messages: - Breeding corals for heat tolerance is feasible - R&D is now needed to optimise outcomes - Not a silver bullet solution - We still need rapid climate action bit.ly/4h0Tc0P (1/9)

Thanks to Amanda Bates for her thoughts on how the recent paper from my PhD at the Coralassist Lab (on the variability of coral heat tolerance among reefs) contributes to thermal biology and conservation more broadly. doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...

Thanks to all the other supportive groups & institutions helping fuel ideas in our field: PICRC AIMS, @newcastleuni.bsky.social Coralassist Lab, University of Queensland, @ubcoceans.bsky.social, Southern Cross Uni (12/12)

Thanks for supporting this work: @ukri.org NERC, ONEPlanet DTP, ERC Research, Mitacs Canada, @rgsibg.bsky.social @icrs.bsky.social IDEAWILD & wonderful coauthors: YM Bozec, J Bythell, @simondonner.bsky.social, H East, AJ Edwards, Y Golbuu, M Gouezo, J Guest, A Humanes, C Riginos & P Mumby (11/12)

📢New Paper Alert📢 on corals and climate change in Science Adaptation via natural selection could determine whether Acropora corals persist under expected levels of global warming Hyperlinks & explainer thread below ⬇️ (1/12)

Wednesday in Tulum: James Guest at 11.30am on a 5- year selective breeding trial & myself at 12.00pm on natural adaptation and importance of which trait we choose for breeding

Can we selectively breed Acropora corals for heat tolerance? Two upcoming Coralassist Lab talks on adaptation & breeding @coralconsortium.bsky.social #ReefFutures Feasibility & lessons learned from Pacific context building on our 2 new papers: doi.org/10.1126/scie... rdcu.be/d2RhM

Delighted to see our paper out in Science Magazine today. And congrats for the amazing picture James Guest! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...