Larvae from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia are frozen for preservation

Scientists working on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef have successfully tested a new method for freezing and storing coral larvae that they say could help restore wild reefs threatened by climate change.

Scientists are struggling to protect coral reefs as rising ocean temperatures destabilize delicate ecosystems. The Great Barrier Reef has experienced four bleaching events in the past seven years, including the first bleaching during a La Niña phenomenon, which typically brings cooler temperatures.

Cryogenically frozen coral can be stored and later reintroduced into the wild, but the current process requires sophisticated equipment, including lasers. Scientists say a new method can be manufactured cheaply and better preserves corals.

In a lab test in December, the world’s first on Great Barrier Reef corals, scientists used the method to freeze coral larvae at the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences (AIMS). Coral was collected from the reef for testing, which coincided with the brief annual spawning window.

“If we can protect coral biodiversity … then we have tools for the future to really help restore reefs and this technology for coral reefs in the future is a real game changer,” Mary Hagedorn, researcher at the Smithsonian National Zoo and Institute for Preservation and Biology, AIMS laboratory.

Freezing has previously been tested on smaller and larger varieties of Hawaiian corals. A test with the larger variety failed. Studies continue with larger varieties of Great Barrier Reef corals.

The tests involved scientists from AIMS, the Smithsonian National Zoo and Institute for Preservation and Biology, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and the Taronga Preservation Society of Australia, as part of the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Programme.