Coral Gardening - Nursery Phase — Culebra Island

OPP-CR3VNQpermanent identifier · cite as oceanportfolio.org/p/OPP-CR3VNQ

Published as: Community-based coral reef rehabilitation in a changing climate: lessons learned from hurricanes, extreme rainfall, and changing land use impacts. | Technique: Coral Gardening - Nursery Phase | Disturbance addressed: General degradation | Genera: Acropora | Method: Corals were farmed on frames (180 × 150 cm wire panels with 15 × 15 cm sq. holes). Each farm was subdivided in 6 replicate units per site, one per each genetic clone, at approximately 5 m depth. A total of 80 replicate fragments per clone, per site, were grown during a year in 2011-2012 on the frames. A second experiment, conducted a year later, used larger fragments (32-37cm). | Survival of transplants reported by the source: 73% | Post-restoration monitoring: 24 months | Authors' conclusion: Survival rate in “A frame” units improved from 73% during 2011-2012 to 81% during 2012-2013. Coral survival rate improved to 97% in horizontal line nurseries (HLN) incorporated during 2012-2013. Percent tissue cover ranged from 86% to 91% in “A frames”, but reached 98% in HLN. Mean coral skeletal extension was 27 cm/y in “A frames” and 40 cm/y in HLN. These growth rates were up to 545% to 857% faster than previous reports from coral farms from other parts of the Caribbean, and up to 438% faster than wild colonies. Coral mortality was attributed to hurricane physical impacts and sediment-laden… | Lessons reported: Achieving successful local management of reefs and adjacent lands is vital to maintain the sustained net production in coral farms and of reef structure, and the provision of the important ecosystem services that they provide. | This record was compiled from a published source and has not been confirmed by the organisation that carried out the work. No contribution to the condition index is recorded: the source reports survival of transplanted material, which is not a measure of ecosystem condition.

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