Selective Adaptation Risks in Extreme Coral Habitats

Given the urgent pace of climate change, novel management approaches are imperative to safeguard coral reefs, and while environments like mangrove lagoons, which experience extreme abiotic variations, are considered potential sources of stress-tolerant corals for strategies like assisted evolution, our investigation of the coral Porites lutea thriving in both mangrove and reef locations reveals trade-offs in genetic, energetic, and skeletal traits that accompany stress tolerance, suggesting that using such corals in human interventions requires careful consideration due to potential compromises in future competitive fitness despite their current survival in extreme conditions.