Stanford scientists brought bleached corals back to full health in seven weeks

In laboratory tanks at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station, bleached coral fragments that touched healthy clones of themselves recovered fully in seven weeks, the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability reported. The work was published Oct. 14 in Science Advances. Lead author Danny Collins set up 10 pairs, each a bleached piece and a healthy piece from the same animal. Five pairs touched. Five had a gap of a few millimeters. Where tissues fused, life-giving algae began moving back within three days. The pieces that never touched died.

The school called it the fastest recovery yet documented. It happened in a lab, with genetically identical fragments, not on a reef. The researchers say the result could shape new restoration ideas. It does not show that a heat wave on a wild reef can be reversed the same way, and it does not stop the warming that causes bleaching.