ABSTRACT

Corals are exposed to a plethora of environmental stress factors, but the most significant one is the rising temperature due to the anthropogenic global climate change. The ability of coral reefs to survive the predicted increases in water temperature resulting from global climate change will depend on their adaptation to elevated temperatures. In addition to the tropical and subtropical, shallow-water and reef-building corals there is a second group of cold-water corals which are usually found in much deeper habitats around the world. Overexploitation of corals, fish, and other members of the reef communities is a major threat for the ecosystem. Calcification in corals increases with increasing temperature up to an optimum and then decreases very fast. One goal of human-assisted evolution in corals is breeding clones with traits that allow them to survive the deteriorating growth conditions under climate change scenarios.