There’s an invisible line in the ocean that’s supposed to keep coral species apart, but it turns out there are secret "teleportation" paths letting them sneak through.
arXiv · March 13, 2026 · 2603.12111
Why it matters
Scientists used drifting buoy data and Bayesian inference to find rare ocean currents that allow coral larvae to cross a 2,500-mile genetic dead zone before they die. This explains how the same species of coral exists on both sides of a barrier that was previously thought to be impassable by living larvae.
From the abstract
Genetic analyses indicate minimal gene flow across the so-called Eastern Pacific Barrier (EPB) in larvae of the reef-building coral \emph{Porites lobata}. Notably, Clipperton Atoll, situated on the eastern side of the EPB, is the only site that exhibits detectable genetic connectivity with the Line Islands, which lie to the west of the EPB. To elucidate the relationship between this genetic signal and large-scale Pacific Ocean circulation, we analyze historical trajectories of surface-drifting b