Coral Gardening — Kusu Island

OPP-Y016GDpermanent identifier · cite as oceanportfolio.org/p/OPP-Y016GD

Published as: Augmenting the post-transplantation growth and survivorship of juvenile scleractinian corals via nutritional enhancement | Technique: Coral Gardening | Genera: Pocillopora | Method: Recruits of the scleractinian coral Pocillopora damicornis were fed with live Artemia salina nauplii twice a week for 24 weeks in an ex situ coral nursery, and then transplanted back onto the reef. | Survival of transplants reported by the source: 54% | Post-restoration monitoring: 6 months | Authors' conclusion: Fed recruits grew significantly faster than unfed ones, corals supplied with the highest density of nauplii increased their ecological volume by more than 74 times their initial size, and the benefits of feeding were apparent even after transplantation to the reef. The fed corals had significantly higher survival and growth rates than the unfed ones. | Lessons reported: Costs per unit volumetric growth were drastically reduced with increasing feed densities, corals fed with the highest density of nauplii were more than 12 times cheaper than the controls. | 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.

Recorded result

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