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Imperiled Great Barrier Reef corals are healthy and reproducing in a Kansas City lab

With the hope of discovering new ways to save these iconic animals from extinction, scientists at the Stowers Institute have successfully induced sexual reproduction in a population of Great Barrier Reef coral housed hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean.

03 June 2025

Around the world, coral reefs are under threat due to the combined effects of climate change, ocean acidification, and coastal development. These ecologically essential animals are notoriously delicate and typically reproduce just once per year, making it a major challenge to study their biology. At the Stowers Institute, scientists have accomplished an exciting feat in an unlikely location—successfully spawning and propagating tropical corals housed within aquariums. Stowers scientists are studying coral to gain a greater understanding of their developmental and evolutionary biology—and potentially devising strategies to save these ancient marine invertebrates.

“Many species of coral may not survive much longer, particularly in US territorial waters,” said Matt Gibson, Ph.D., Institute Investigator and Graduate School President. “Because of the critical role of coral reefs in marine ecosystems, this lends a certain urgency to studying their genetics and molecular biology, which may yield solutions for their conservation before it’s too late.”

In the wild, coral spawning, the process of releasing reproductive cells, happens just once a year during summer nights around the full moon. Coral spawning in captivity is challenging because there are many environmental parameters that need to be replicated to “trick” the corals into releasing sperm and eggs at just the right time. Yet in November 2024, coral colonies sourced from Australia’s Great Barrier Reef spawned at the Institute, an achievement only a handful of labs worldwide have managed.

“It's not an easy endeavor to establish an indoor coral facility,” said Rachel Livella, a scientist on the Institute’s Aquatics team. “This process took several years—from gathering resources to the background work needed to build the facility, to setting up a system intended to mimic nature.”

When the Gibson Lab, which has been researching coral’s cousin, the sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis, for over a decade, expanded to include coral, Stowers Postdoctoral Researcher Emma Rangel-Huerta, Ph.D., joined the lab.

Rangel-Huerta became fascinated by coral during her doctoral work at a marine station in the Caribbean. “I loved snorkeling and diving in the reef and was captivated by the biodiversity coral supports and wanted to really understand the developmental biology behind these incredible organisms.”

During her Ph.D., Rangel-Huerta participated in the extensive fieldwork needed to collect the bundles of reproductive cells coral release during spawning. This meant diving at night, using nets, documenting conditions, and transporting samples for daytime lab analysis. Having a spawning coral population on-site is more than just a matter of accessibility.

“In the field, we have just one chance per year to collect the bundles,” said Rangel-Huerta. “But in the lab, by manipulating conditions indoors, we may be able to trigger spawning at different months throughout the year. This may enable more opportunities to conduct our research.”

It may also help scientists uncover new ways to help coral thrive in the wild. Understanding the symbiosis between coral and the algae they host is key to their resilience in a changing climate. Rising sea levels and temperatures are disrupting this delicate relationship and are major drivers of bleaching events and death.

“The Stowers Institute has such unique technological and personnel resources,” said Gibson. “By establishing reproductively active coral colonies on-site, we can now rapidly accelerate the pace of research to understand their basic biology and perhaps learn how to make coral more environmentally resilient. Ultimately, we’re investigating fundamental biological processes with an eye toward how we could help them survive changing environmental conditions far into the future.”