Research Infrastructure: Scaling Capacity for Coral Research at Arizona State University's Ridge to Reef Restoration Center in Hawai'i

About This Grant

Coral reefs, vital ecosystems supporting marine biodiversity, coastal protection, and local economies, face severe threats from warming and acidifying oceans as well as from local human activities. The Arizona State University (ASU) ʻĀkoʻakoʻa Coral Facility in Hawaiʻi is uniquely positioned to tackle these challenges by leveraging its strategic location along the 120-mile West Hawaiʻi reef tract – the largest contiguous coral reef system in the Hawaiian archipelago – and its existing infrastructure, which includes the Pacific’s largest outdoor coral nursery. This project will expand the Arizona State University's Ridge to Reef Restoration Center in Hawai'i research facilities to establish it as a global hub for coral reef research, enabling large-scale, interdisciplinary studies on coral resilience to climate stressors and ecosystem-scale restoration. It also integrates community involvement and education by providing hands-on training in coral restoration techniques to local students, underserved communities, and tourists, fostering reef conservation stewardship. Key advancements to infrastructure include the installation of state-of-the-art seawater systems with precise temperature and pCO2 controls, reproduction systems for mass larval rearing, and ultrafiltration technology to support microbiome research. These improvements will allow scientists to conduct complex experiments at all stages of coral development under near-natural conditions, providing critical insights into coral performance, adaptation, and climate resilience. The enhanced infrastructure will also enable large-scale selective breeding and the annual production of over 200 million stress-tolerant coral larvae for reef restoration along the West Hawaiʻi coast. As such, this initiative will directly aid in the recovery of Hawaiʻi’s coral reefs, safeguarding their ecological and cultural legacy for future generations. The ASU ʻĀkoʻakoʻa Coral Facility is poised to advance pioneering research in coral reef resilience and restoration through the implementation of cutting-edge technological infrastructure. The facility will feature 36 seawater raceways integrated with precision environmental control systems, enabling high-resolution, large-scale, and long-duration experiments to quantify the synergistic impacts of thermal stress, ocean acidification, and other environmental variables on coral physiology, reproductive biology, and microbiome dynamics. Additionally, 50 conical tanks and 40 specialized larval systems will be deployed to facilitate controlled studies on gametogenesis, larval settlement kinetics, and post-settlement ontogeny. Leveraging these advanced systems, researchers will address pivotal scientific inquiries, including the heritability of stress tolerance, microbial contributions to early ontogenetic stages, and ecosystem-level outcomes of assisted reproductive interventions. By synthesizing these technological capabilities with a longitudinal ecological dataset spanning over three decades, the 3RC will serve as a premier research hub, equipping both resident and visiting scientists with unparalleled resources to elucidate mechanisms of coral reef resilience and to engineer scalable, evidence-based restoration methodologies. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.