"The way to resist stress in any organism is to evolve in response to that stress," says coral scientist Raphael Ritson-Williams from the California Academy of Sciences. "And to evolve, you need genetic diversity." Although corals are clonal and can reproduce asexually, sex is the best way to maintain a diverse gene pool. That's why scientists like Ritson-Williams and his collaborators at SECORE have turned to assisted sexual reproduction to help threatened corals survive on a changing planet.
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