SAN DIEGO (AP) — Evolution works over millennia. Climate change is moving far faster.That mismatch is killing some of the planet’s most vital ecosystems, from California’s towering redwoods to the seagrass meadows along its coast, both of which store vast amounts of carbon and support complex webs of life.Marine heat waves, record wildfires and coastal development are pushing these systems beyond their limits as climate change, driven by emissions of fuels like oil and gas, accelerates. An estimated 1 million species face extinction, many within decades, largely due to human activities such as habitat destruction, pollution and overuse of natural resources, according to a 2019 report by a United Nations-affiliated intergovernmental scientific body.AdvertisementAdvertisementScientists are working to close the gap with an emerging discipline called conservation genomics: sequencing an organism’s complete genetic blueprint to pinpoint individuals with traits suited to survive drought, disease and other climate extremes, then using that information to guide restoration.Coral reefs are among the first ecosystems where these genomic tools are being put to use. Repeated marine heat waves, which have caused mass bleaching, have devastated reefs worldwide. By sequencing corals and the algae that live inside them, researchers have identified colonies that naturally withstand higher temperatures and are beginning to test whether selectively breeding and growing those more resilient corals can support reef recovery.Seagrass are under stressIn Southern California, researchers are applying the approach to eelgrass, a type of seagrass, as traditional restoration methods falter. The plant provides habitat for fish, crabs and plankton, feeds migratory birds and locks away carbon and methane — both heat-trapping greenhouse gases — in coastal sediments.Conditions in San Diego’s bays are changing. Waters are warming. King tides — the year’s highest tides, which climate change is making more frequent and severe — stir up sediment and reduce the light that reaches the seafloor. Development sends runoff into bays, further clouding the water.AdvertisementAdvertisementAs a result, efforts to replant what’s been lost fail about half the time.“Conservation genomics is becoming particularly important because right now, the climate is changing — a plant that was growing great in San Diego Bay, now San Diego Bay might be too hot for it,” said Todd Michael, a research professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.In Mission Bay, Michael and his colleagues discovered a clue to improving those odds: a naturally occurring hybrid eelgrass that outperformed its parent species. The plant, a cross between shallow water eelgrass Zostera marina and deeper water Zostera pacifica, persisted where both parent species struggled.By sequencing its genome, the team identified genes tied to the plant’s circadian clock that stayed active longer under low light conditions, a pattern scientists believe may help it photosynthesize more efficiently in murky water.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe findings suggest restoration could be improved by selecting or breeding eelgrass better suited to future conditions. But for now, that work remains largely experimental and has not yet been deployed at scale in the field. The researchers have partnered with ecologists at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography to explore how those insights could be applied in future restoration.Applying similar techniques to Northern California’s redwoodsRedwoods …
