How does budding allow tunicate colonies to reproduce?

Tunicate colonies reproduce through asexual budding, a process where new individuals, known as zooids, develop from the parent organism.1

In this form of reproduction, a new individual originates from a generative anatomical point on the parent. While some organisms release these buds to exist independently, in colonial tunicates, the buds remain attached to the parent, forming aggregates or colonies. This process allows for the expansion of the colony, with zooids often becoming smaller and simpler in structure as the colony elaborates. In certain groups, such as the thaliaceans, budding is part of a complex system of alternating reproductive phases.231