Data to support: Moving beyond heritability in the search for coral adaptive potential

Global environmental change is happening at unprecedented rates. Coral
reefs are among the ecosystems most threatened by global change. For wild
populations to persist, they must adapt. Knowledge shortfalls about
corals’ complex ecological and evolutionary dynamics, however, stymie
predictions about potential adaptation to future conditions. Here, we
review adaptation through the lens of quantitative genetics. We argue that
coral adaptation studies can benefit greatly from “wild” quantitative
genetic methods, where traits are studied in wild populations undergoing
natural selection, genomic relationship matrices can replace breeding
experiments, and analyses can be extended to examine genetic constraints
among traits. Individuals with advantageous genotypes for anticipated
future conditions can be identified. Finally, genomic genotyping supports
simultaneous consideration of how genetic diversity is arrayed across
geographic and environmental distances, providing greater context for
predictions of phenotypic evolution at a metapopulation scale.