Inside the Labs Racing to Save The World’s Coral Reefs

Coral reefs are home to one in four ocean species, support fisheries, and protect coastlines from storm surges and rising sea levels. And they are at risk. Last fall, scientists reported that warm-water coral reefs are passing their planetary tipping point, a threshold that, once crossed, leads to large, accelerating, and often irreversible changes. Photographer Britta Jaschinski spent six months with scientists across the U.K. and Germany as they race to make these critical ecosystems more resilient, whether by freezing coral sperm in biobanks or controlling coral reproduction in labs like the one pictured above. Molecular collections coordinator Laura Sivess of the Natural History Museum, London, and biobank manager Louise Gibson, of the Institute of Zoology, London, are seen collecting coral fragments to be used in genetic diversity and geographic origin investigations.

In the wild, corals release eggs and sperm into the sea during mass spawning events, but rising temperatures are disrupting these delicate cycles. Replicating seasonal temperature changes and natural lunar patterns can trigger these reproductive events in labs. In 2024, scientists at the Horniman Aquarium’s Project Coral lab in London successfully spawned and reared the threatened Pink Sea Fan, marking the first time the species was successfully raised in captivity in the U.K. “It’s not a silver bullet,” says Jamie Craggs, principal aquarium curator at the Horniman Museum and Gardens. “Restoration is not going to rebuild the world’s reefs. The scale at which we need to act is just far too vast for the current technology that we have. Restoration is about buying time in pockets to give corals at least a fighting chance into the future.”