Embryonic cells and sperm collected from two species of coral that live in the Great Barrier Reef are being preserved in frozen repository that could someday restore some of the corals to the reef.

Scientists from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute spent two weeks at the end of November to collect the samples during spawning from coral in the Great Barrier Reef to preserve the species and could one day restore coral populations around the world.

"It turns out we can produce significant numbers of developing larvae using the thawed sperm and that those larvae actually settle," said Mary Hagedorn, a marine biologist at SCBI. "This is a huge milestone for us because if the larvae couldn't metamorphose and settle, we wouldn't be able to successfully use the bank for conservation efforts, which is the driving force behind this important research." Coral settling is the process in which free-swimming coral larva metamorphose into a polyp baby coral.

The new frozen repository now includes two reef-building species of coral, Acropora tenuis and A. millepora both of which now reside in long-term storage at the Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo, Australia. Hagedorn has already successfully applied this technology to reefs in the Caribbean and Hawaii.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef is facing a number of threats from overfishing, pollution and climate change. Conservationists and marine scientists believe that many of the world's coral reefs are in danger of dying off within the next 50 to 100 years. Australia has stepped up conservation efforts on the Great Barrier Reef by funding various research projects and protecting the Great Barrier Reef from fishing but even these efforts could be overwhelmed by the effects of global warming and pollution.

The SCBI's frozen repository could be the coral reefs best chance at surviving the next few years. The frozen cells will remain in stasis until scientists decide to place them back into ecosystems. In January 2012, Hagedorn and her colleagues will culture frozen embryonic cells to determine how long they can live.

"Right now there are no tools to help address some of the diseases most devastating to the reef," Hagedorn said. "If we can grow embryonic cells and keep them alive, this technology could be important in battling those coral diseases."