Perspectives on the Use of Coral Reef Restoration as a Strategy to Support and Improve Reef Ecosystem Services

Hein, Margaux Y.; Vardi, Tali; Shaver, Elizabeth C.; Pioch, Sylvain; Boström‐Einarsson, Lisa; Ahmed, Mohamed; Grimsditch, Gabriel; McLeod, Ian

doi:10.3389/fmars.2021.618303

Cited by 67 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Many reviews have dealt with the importance of ecosystem functions and services on coral reefs (Harborne et al, 2006, Brandl et al, 2019Woodhead et al, 2019), including in the context for reef restoration practices (Hein et al, 2021). However, for corals, the experimental and observational evidence linking species to functions is still limited (Brandl et al, 2019), perhaps because of the long timescales of reef-building.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Selecting coral species for reef restoration

Madin

McWilliam

Quigley

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Humans have long sought to restore species but little attention has been directed at how best to do so for rich assemblages of foundation species that support ecosystems, like rainforests and coral reefs that are increasingly threatened by environmental change.We developed a two-part triage process for selecting optimized sets of species for restoration. We demonstrated this process using phenotypic traits and ecological characteristics for reef building corals found along the east coast of Australia. Without clear linkages between phenotypic traits and ecosystem functions, the first part of the triage hedges against function loss by ensuring an even spread of life history traits. The second part hedges against future species losses by weighting species based on characteristics that are known to increase their ecological persistence to current environmental pressures—abundance, species range and thermal bleaching tolerance— as well as their amenability to restoration methods.We identified sets of ecologically persistent and restorable species most likely to protect against functional loss by examining marginal returns in occupancy of phenotypic trait space per restored species.We also compared sets of species with those from the southern-most accretional reef as well as a coral restoration program to demonstrate how trait space occupancy is likely to protect against local loss of ecosystem function.Synthesis and applications. A quantitative approach to selecting sets of foundational species for restoration can inform decisions about ecosystem protection to guide and optimize future restoration efforts. The approach addresses the need to insure against unpredictable losses of ecosystem functions by investing in a wide range of phenotypes. Furthermore, the flexibility of the approach enables the functional goals of restoration to vary depending on environmental context, stakeholder values, and the spatial and temporal scales at which meaningful impacts can be achieved.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Restoration of reef corals is a relatively new field (Hein et al, 2021), and so there is little longterm knowledge of what makes species more or less amenable to the restoration process. A metaanalysis of coral restoration studies ranked the use of coral growth forms in restoration projects (Boström-Einarsson et al, 2020).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selecting coral species for reef restoration

Madin

McWilliam

Quigley

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…For restoration practitioners, the CSR provides a free, easy to use resource to monitor their collection activities and inventory collected samples. By directly tying a collection event to an initial coral sample, a clear link is established between the collection event and the subsequent lineage of that sample through asexual reproduction, currently the dominant form of propagation for many coral restoration practitioners (Boström-Einarsson et al, 2020;Hein et al, 2021). As we learn more about the phenotypic plasticity of various coral species, it is becoming clear that the variance associated with a particular genotype in different environments is complex.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This outcome would mean catastrophic loss of marine species, potential loss of tropical coral reef ecosystems, reduced food security for a large portion of the world's population, international security issues, risks to fresh water supplies, and increased coastal flooding. Consequently, protecting and restoring the world's tropical coral reefs has become increasingly important to both public and private interests across the global community broadly (Hein et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Coral Restoration Data With a Novel Coral Sample Registry

et al. 2021

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In the past decade, the field of coral reef restoration has experienced a proliferation of data detailing the source, genetics, and performance of coral strains used in research and restoration. Resource managers track the multitude of permits, species, restoration locations, and performance across multiple stakeholders while researchers generate large data sets and data pipelines detailing the genetic, genomic, and phenotypic variants of corals. Restoration practitioners, in turn, maintain records on fragment collection, genet performance, outplanting location and survivorship. While each data set is important in its own right, collectively they can provide deeper insights into coral biology and better guide coral restoration endeavors – unfortunately, current data sets are siloed with limited ability to cross-mine information for deeper insights and hypothesis testing. Herein we present the Coral Sample Registry (CSR), an online resource that establishes the first step in integrating diverse coral restoration data sets. Developed in collaboration with academia, management agencies, and restoration practitioners in the South Florida area, the CSR centralizes information on sample collection events by issuing a unique accession number to each entry. Accession numbers can then be incorporated into existing and future data structures. Each accession number is unique and corresponds to a specific collection event of coral tissue, whether for research, archiving, or restoration purposes. As such the accession number can serve as the key to unlock the diversity of information related to that sample’s provenance and characteristics across any and all data structures that include the accession number field. The CSR is open-source and freely available to users, designed to be suitable for all coral species in all geographic regions. Our goal is that this resource will be adopted by researchers, restoration practitioners, and managers to efficiently track coral samples through all data structures and thus enable the unlocking of a broader array of insights.

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“…The United Nations General Assembly recognized the pressing need to restore damaged ecosystems and proclaimed 2021-2030 to be the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, with the primary goal being to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide. The United Nations Environment Assembly adopted a resolution that requested UNEP to specifically better define best practices for coral restoration [17]. Since the main threat to coral reefs is climate change [18], their restoration is likely most effective as a complementary tool in a larger management portfolio or as a temporary measure to minimize loss while global solutions are sought [17,19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A systematic review of artificial reefs as platforms for coral reef research and conservation

2022

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Artificial reefs (ARs) have been used on coral reefs for ecological research, conservation, and socio-cultural purposes since the 1980s. We examined spatio-temporal patterns in AR deployment in tropical and subtropical coral reefs (up to 35° latitude) and evaluated their efficacy in meeting conservation objectives, using a systematic review of the scientific literature. Most deployments (136 studies) were in the North Atlantic and Central Indo-Pacific in 1980s – 2000s, with a pronounced shift to the Western Indo-Pacific in 2010s. Use of ARs in reef restoration or stressor mitigation increased markedly in response to accelerating coral decline over the last 2 decades. Studies that evaluated success in meeting conservation objectives (n = 51) commonly reported increasing fish abundance (55%), enhancing habitat quantity (31%) or coral cover (27%), and conserving target species (24%). Other objectives included stressor mitigation (22%), provision of coral nursery habitat (14%) or source populations (2%) and addressing socio-cultural and economic values (16%). Fish (55% of studies) and coral (53%) were the most commonly monitored taxa. Success in achieving conservation objectives was reported in 33 studies. Success rates were highest for provision of nursery habitat and increasing coral cover (each 71%). Increasing fish abundance or habitat quantity, mitigating environmental impacts, and attaining socio-cultural objectives were moderately successful (60–64%); conservation of target species was the least successful (42%). Failure in achieving objectives commonly was attributed to poor AR design or disruption by large-scale bleaching events. The scale of ARs generally was too small (m2 –10s m2) to address regional losses in coral cover, and study duration too short (< 5 years) to adequately assess ecologically relevant trends in coral cover and community composition. ARs are mostly likely to aid in reef conservation and restoration by providing nursery habitat for target species or recruitment substrate for corals and other organisms. Promoting local socio-cultural values also has potential for regional or global impact by increasing awareness of coral reef decline, if prioritized and properly monitored.

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Perspectives on the Use of Coral Reef Restoration as a Strategy to Support and Improve Reef Ecosystem Services

Cited by 67 publications

References 31 publications

Selecting coral species for reef restoration

Selecting coral species for reef restoration

Integrating Coral Restoration Data With a Novel Coral Sample Registry

A systematic review of artificial reefs as platforms for coral reef research and conservation

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