Coral reefs worldwide are degrading due to climate change, overfishing, pollution, coastal development, coral bleaching, and diseases. In areas where the natural recovery of an ecosystem is negligible or protection through management interventions insufficient, active restoration becomes critical. The Reef Futures symposium in 2018 brought together over 400 reef restoration experts, businesses, and civil organizations, and galvanized them to save coral reefs through restoration or identify alternative solutions. The symposium highlighted that solutions and discoveries from long-term and ongoing coral reef restoration projects in Spanish-speaking countries in the Caribbean and Eastern Tropical Pacific were not well known internationally. Therefore, a meeting of scientists and practitioners working in these locations was held to compile the data on the extent of coral reef restoration efforts, advances and challenges. Here, we present unpublished data from 12 coral reef restoration case studies from five Latin American countries, describe their motivations and techniques used, and provide estimates on total annual project cost per unit area of reef intervened, spatial extent as well as project duration. We found that most projects used direct transplantation, the coral gardening method, micro-fragmentation or larval propagation, and aimed to optimize or scale-up restoration approaches (51%) or provide alternative, sustainable
Echinoderm mass mortality events shape marine ecosystems by altering the dynamics among major benthic groups. The sea urchin Diadema antillarum , virtually extirpated in the Caribbean in the early 1980s by an unknown cause, recently experienced another mass mortality beginning in January 2022. We investigated the cause of this mass mortality event through combined molecular biological and veterinary pathologic approaches comparing grossly normal and abnormal animals collected from 23 sites, representing locations that were either affected or unaffected at the time of sampling. Here, we report that a scuticociliate most similar to Philaster apodigitiformis was consistently associated with abnormal urchins at affected sites but was absent from unaffected sites. Experimentally challenging naïve urchins with a Philaster culture isolated from an abnormal, field-collected specimen resulted in gross signs consistent with those of the mortality event. The same ciliate was recovered from treated specimens postmortem, thus fulfilling Koch’s postulates for this microorganism. We term this condition D. antillarum scuticociliatosis.
Acropora cervicornis is a structurally and functionally important Caribbean coral species. Since the 1980s, it has suffered drastic population losses with no signs of recovery and has been classified as a critically endangered species. Its rapid growth rate makes it an excellent candidate for coral restoration programs. In 2011, the Fundación Dominicana de Estudios Marinos (Dominican Marine Studies Foundation, FUNDEMAR) began an A. cervicornis restoration program in Bayahibe, southeast Dominican Republic. In this study, we present the methodology and results of this program from its conception through 2017, a preliminary analysis of the strong 2016 and 2017 cyclonic seasons in the greater Caribbean, and a genetic characterization of the “main nursery”. The mean survival of the fragments over 12 months was 87.45 ± 4.85% and the mean productivity was 4.01 ± 1.88 cm year−1 for the eight nurseries. The mean survival of six outplanted sites over 12 months was 71.55 ± 10.4%, and the mean productivity was 3.03 ± 1.30 cm year−1. The most common cause of mortality during the first 12 months, in both nurseries and outplanted sites, was predation by the fireworm, Hermodice carunculata. We identified 32 multilocus genotypes from 145 total analyzed individuals. The results and techniques described here will aid in the development of current and future nursery and outplanted site restoration programs.
39Coral reefs worldwide are degrading due to climate change, overfishing, pollution, coastal 40 development, bleaching and diseases. In areas where natural recovery is negligible or protection 41 through management interventions insufficient, active restoration becomes critical. The Reef Futures 42 symposium in 2018 brought together over 400 reef restoration experts, businesses, and civil 43 organizations, and galvanized them to save coral reefs through restoration or identify alternative 44 solutions. The symposium highlighted that solutions and discoveries from long-term and ongoing coral 45 reef restoration projects in Spanish-speaking countries in the Caribbean and Eastern Tropical Pacific 46were not well known internationally. Therefore, a meeting of scientists and practitioners working in 47 these locations was held to compile the data on the extent of coral reef restoration efforts, advances 48 and challenges. Here, we present unpublished data from 12 coral reef restoration case studies from 49five Latin American countries, describe their motivations and techniques used, and provide estimates 50 on total annual project cost per unit area of reef intervened, spatial extent as well as project duration. 51We found that most projects used direct transplantation, the coral gardening method, micro-52 fragmentation or larval propagation, and aimed to optimize or scale-up restoration approaches (51%) 53 or provide alternative, sustainable livelihood opportunities (15%) followed by promoting coral reef 54 conservation stewardship and re-establishing a self-sustaining, functioning reef ecosystem (both 55 13%). Reasons for restoring coral reefs were mainly biotic and experimental (both 42%), followed by 56 idealistic and pragmatic motivations (both 8%). The median annual total cost from all projects was 57 $93,000 USD (range: $10,000 USD -$331,802 USD) (2018 dollars) and intervened a median spatial 58 area of 1 ha (range: 0.06 ha -8.39 ha). The median project duration was 3 years; however, projects 59 have lasted up to 17 years. Project feasibility was high with a median of 0.7 (range: 0.5 -0.8). This 60 study closes the knowledge gap between academia and practitioners and overcomes the language 61 barrier by providing the first comprehensive compilation of data from ongoing coral reef restoration 62
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