News Animals

Adult corals have been safely frozen and revived for the first time

Freezing corals could help ensure their survival in the face of climate change

Two yellowish branches of a finger coral from the species Porites compressa are pictured.

Porites compressa, a finger coral, gets its name for its blunt branches. Mature chunks of it collected off the coast of Hawaii have successfully been frozen and revived, offering hope that the world’s corals could be preserved as the oceans warm and acidify.

Claire Lager, Smithsonian

By Nikk Ogasa

Like something out of science fiction, small colonies of mature corals have been safely frozen and revived for the first time, though more work will be needed to ensure their long-term survival, researchers report August 23 in Nature Communications.