Abstract Summary
The Florida Reef Tract (FRT) is the third-largest barrier reef ecosystem in the world, extending from the St. Lucie Inlet in Martin County to the Dry Tortugas. In 2014, an unidentified coral ‘tissue-loss’ disease was first observed in Miami-Dade County and quickly spread throughout the northern areas of the FRT. The outbreak has since progressed slowly and persistently south of Miami and through the Upper and Middle Keys, reaching the Lower Keys by April 2018. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is partnering with NOAA Fisheries, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and Florida Department of Environmental Protection to design and implement the Florida Coral Rescue Plan (FCRP), in order to prevent the ecological extinction of the most susceptible coral species along the Florida Reef Tract and to maintain as much genetic diversity as possible for all rescued species in preparation for restoration and future disturbances. FWC geneticists, adopting a targeted amplicon sequencing (TAS) approach, intend to develop robust panels of SNP-based genomic markers for approximately 25 prioritized species and to conduct TAS genotyping assays of collected corals in furtherance of FCRP activities. Genet status will be genetically determined for all rescued colonies and a relational Genet Registry database (FWC-hosted and managed) will be established, allowing for diversity assessment and facilitating colony tracking, propagation, and outplanting. To inform subsequent restorations in Florida, additional collections will be performed throughout the FRT for all ‘brooder’ species on the priority list and their natural levels of genetic connectivity will be determined. Lastly, FWC will develop, maintain, and make available ‘DNA banks’ of cryopreserved genomic DNA and surplus tissues for all species collected. Legacy data products from the work (i.e., whole-genome reference libraries and annotated SNP accession data) will be of tremendous value to other Caribbean coral conservation efforts.
