Global changes highlight a role for phenotypic plasticity as an evolutionary driver of biodiversity under novel environmental conditions. In light of the dire ecological forecast for coral reefs, a demand for understanding acclimatory buffers and the evolutionary implications of climate change has promoted the study of linkages between plasticity and adaptation. In this way, phenotypic plasticity has the potential to direct evolutionary outcomes through modulation of the phenotype, thereby potentially buffering or exacerbating negative ecological performance and also retarding or potentiating adaptive evolution. Work in marine organisms reveal a role for phenotypic plasticity as an evolutionary driver under novel conditions. However, we lack a synthesized understanding of these processes in corals and more critcally across ontogeny. The ultimate issue of the costs or benefits of phenotypic plasticity to adaptive evolution, however, will remain unattainable, as proximate gaps in knowledge of basic dynamics and mechanisms of plasticity remain in the absence of synthesis. It is therefore critical to characterize plasticity as a function of ontogeny within the natural life cycles of coral species. Our goal is to provide longer-term, life-history relevant information to assess the capacity for corals to buffer the negative effects of environmental change through transgenerational or developmental plasticity.