The Reef Resilience Network is co-chairing Climate-Smart Reef Restoration: Integrating Climate Resilience into Restoration Practice (session #35) at the International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS) in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, July 19 – 24, 2026.
If you are working on innovative and applicable approaches to reef restoration under climate change, we would love to see your work represented in our session.
Session Details
Despite rapid global expansion of coral reef restoration efforts, few ecological restoration projects explicitly include resilience-based management to adapt their activities to climate change. As oceans continue to warm, we risk investing hundreds of millions of dollars restoring reefs with corals that will not survive future heat waves. This session addresses a critical gap in restoration practice by bringing together experts and practitioners with diverse experience in Climate-Smart restoration to explore how climate change can be intentionally integrated into coral reef restoration planning, implementation, monitoring and management.
This session supports the symposium’s mission of “Working together to ensure a future for coral reefs” by focusing on practical innovations that enhance restoration effectiveness under changing climate conditions. It will highlight key opportunities for incorporating climate considerations into restoration workflows and provide tested tools and approaches for immediate application by the broader restoration community.
We particularly welcome contributions that clearly demonstrate the application of innovative science to restoration under climate change and that fit under the themes of:
- Restoration planning
- Selection of donor colonies (e.g. monitoring, thermal tolerance testing, genetic testing)
- Selection of restoration sites (e.g. approaches to identifying thermal refugia)
- Maximizing the benefits of resilient genotypes and/or climate refugia
- Planning for genetic adaptation
- Acclimatization techniques to increase coral thermal tolerance (e.g. symbiont shuffling, stress hardening, etc.)
- Low-tech, high-replicate, large-scale monitoring tools and simplified protocols.
- Low-tech accessible thermal-testing methods and tools (invasive and non-invasive)
- Other approaches/tools for climate-smart restoration
The session targets restoration practitioners, reef managers, conservation organizations, and funding agencies seeking evidence-based approaches and interventions to climate-resilient restoration. Participants will gain access to practical tools and methods, establish collaborative networks, and develop strategies to enhance restoration success under projected climate scenarios. The session will conclude with a synthesis of actionable recommendations for integrating climate science into restoration practices.
How to Submit an Abstract
Abstracts are due December 1, 2025. Log in to the abstract submission portal and search for 8. 35: Climate-Smart Reef Restoration: Integrating Climate Resilience into Restoration Practice or refer to the ICRS call for abstracts.
