PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Ecol. Evol.
Sec. Conservation and Restoration Ecology
This article is part of the Research TopicConservation and Restoration in the OceansView all 3 articles
Strategies using sexual reproduction to conserve and restore corals: a case study from the Mexican Caribbean
Provisionally accepted
- National Autonomous University of Mexico, México City, Mexico
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Research in the Mexican Caribbean on the use of assisted propagation to produce coral sexual recruits for outplanting onto local coral reefs has resulted in success as measured by the persistence of the recruits despite intensive heat waves and the production of colonies which are reproducing in the wild. This research is based on four cornerstones: 1) accurate prediction of coral spawning dates and times based on an analysis of almost 20 years of data that helps to make for efficient programming of field work to different sites; 2) the optimization of low-cost methods to assist in the sexual reproduction for five reef-building species through to outplanting and monitoring of the recruits in the wild; 3) the cryopreservation of sperm to form a gene bank of six species of reef-building corals for use in the future when environmental conditions improve and 4) knowledge sharing and capacity building of individuals and organizations around the Caribbean to increase the possibilities of success in using these techniques.
Keywords: Coral spawning timing, assisted sexual reproduction, Sperm cryopreservation, Knowledge sharing, Capacity Building
Received: 18 Aug 2025; Accepted: 19 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Banaszak, Francisco-Ramos, Mendoza Quiroz and Grosso Becerra. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Anastazia T. Banaszak, banaszak@cmarl.unam.mx
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