One response to the coral reef crisis has been human intervention to enhance selection on the fittest corals through cultivation. This requires genotypes to be identified for intervention, with a primary basis for this choice being growth: corals that quickly grow on contemporary reefs might be future winners. To test for temporal stability of growth as a predictor of future performance, genotypes of the coral Porites spp. were grown in common gardens in Mo'orea, French Polynesia. Growth was measured every two to four months throughout 2018, and each period was used as a predictor of growth over the subsequent period. Area-normalized growth explained less than 29% of the variance in subsequent growth, but for biomass-normalized growth this increased to 45–60%, and was highest when summer growth was used to predict autumn growth. The capacity of initial growth to predict future performance is dependent on the units of measurement and the time of year in which it is measured. The final choice of traits to quantify performance must be informed through consideration of the species and the normalization that best capture the information inherent in the biological processes mediating variation in traits values.

对珊瑚礁危机的一种应对措施是人为干预，以通过种植来增加对最适体珊瑚的选择。这就需要确定基因型以进行干预，而这种选择的主要依据是生长：在当代礁石上快速生长的珊瑚可能是未来的赢家。为了测试增长的时空稳定性作为未来表现的预测，珊瑚的基因型滨spp。种植在法属波利尼西亚Mo'orea的普通花园中。在整个2018年中，每两到四个月测量一次增长，每个时期都用作后续时期增长的预测指标。面积归一化增长解释了随后增长的不到29％，但是对于生物质归一化增长，增长到45-60％，当用夏季增长来预测秋季增长时最高。初始增长预测未来绩效的能力取决于度量单位和度量时间。要量化表现的性状的最终选择必须通过考虑物种和归一化来提供，这些物种和归一化可以最好地捕获介导性状值变化的生物过程中固有的信息。