Strategies for integrating sexually propagated corals into Caribbean reef restoration: experimental results and considerations

Henry, Joseph; O’Neil, Keri L.; Pilnick, Aaron R.; Patterson, Joshua T.

doi:10.1007/s00338-021-02154-2

Cited by 12 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…Acropora muricata growth rates greatly exceeded those of the other five species and were generally similar to previous studies (e.g. of the genus Acropora ) (Lirman et al 2014; Suggett et al 2019; Henry et al 2021). However, low survival in A. muricata resulted in the lowest RRE score of 11 observed in the study.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Furthermore, tree nursery may prove beneficial compared to a benthic nursery given Malaysia's northeast monsoon season, known to bring heavy rain and winds to the region (Suhaila et al 2010), as the corals are able to move in response to flow (O'Donnell et al 2017). Lastly, it is possible that corals growing on tree nurseries, attached by a single monofilament line, are less exposed to benthic corallivores (Rotjan & Lewis 2008) and competition with algae (Henry et al 2021), a common stressor for corals on the reef (Lirman 2001;McCook et al 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Using relative return‐on‐effort scoring to evaluate a novel coral nursery in Malaysia

Henry

Szereday²,

Lynn

et al. 2022

Restoration Ecology

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Coral reefs in Malaysia have been degraded by environmental and anthropogenic stressors, and enthusiasm for coral propagation aimed at site restoration is rapidly growing as a local management tool. However, coral propagation activities in the region are in their infancy and little data currently exists to guide and inform effective practices. We therefore established the first multi‐taxa coral tree nursery (6 species and 300 fragments) in Malaysia and tracked survival and growth to determine the relative return‐on‐effort (RRE) over an approximately 14‐month monitoring period. We observed differences in growth and survival among six coral species and were successful at benchmarking results against coral restoration operations globally and in the East Asian Seas region. Major findings include (1) overall ranges in species level survivorship of 34–94% and specific growth rate of 0.14–0.29%/day, leading to variable RRE scores among species, (2) variable growth rates among coral species based on seasonal changes in environmental conditions, (3) similar RRE scores to other nursery locations worldwide, which suggests effective practice, and (4) calculation of RRE scores for species not previously reported in nursery culture (Acropora florida, A. hoeksemai, and Echinopora horrida). Ultimately, our study supports previous findings that RRE is an effective technique for comparing coral nursery performance and offers valuable insight to guide future restoration activities in Malaysia.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using relative return‐on‐effort scoring to evaluate a novel coral nursery in Malaysia

Henry

Szereday²,

Lynn

et al. 2022

Restoration Ecology

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“…In addition, the minimal increase in the number of SNPs that deviate from Hardy-Weinberg expectations may suggest that overall there has not been a great deal of selection or allele frequency changes due to other factors in one generation. This may bode well for out planting aquarium-bred corals into the wild, and indeed it has been shown that aquarium-bred corals can survive and grow successfully in the wild (Henry et al, 2021), in contrast with studies that have demonstrated fitness and phenotype changes in hatchery-raised fish within one generation (Kostow, 2004;Wakiya et al, 2022).…”

Section: Hardy-weinberg Equilibrium In Aquarium-bred Coralsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Increasing threats to coral reefs globally have sparked a need for new, scalable conservation and management solutions. The majority of coral nursery and propagation techniques are currently based on fragmentation and asexual propagation of coral clones (Henry et al, 2021). While these methods can increase coral cover in a particular region, they have the potential to decrease the genetic variation within the population because the fragments are genetic clones of each other.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kinship and genetic variation in aquarium-spawned Acropora hyacinthus corals

et al. 2022

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Recent scientific advances in ex situ system design and operation make it possible to complete gametogenic cycles of broadcast spawning corals. Breeding corals in aquaria is a critical advance for population management, particularly genetic rescue and assisted gene flow efforts. Genetic rescue projects for corals are already underway to bring threatened species into ex situ culture and propagation, thereby preserving standing genetic variation. However, while breeding corals is increasingly feasible, the consequences of the aquarium environment on the genetic and phenotypic composition of coral populations is not yet known. The aquarium environment may in itself be a selective pressures on corals, but it also presents relaxed selective pressures in other respects. In 2019 and 2020, gravid Acropora hyacinthus coral colonies were collected from Palauan reefs and shipped to the California Academy of Sciences (CAS) in San Francisco. In both years, gametes were batch-fertilized to produce larvae that were then settled and reared to recruits. As of April 2021, when they were sampled for sequencing, 23 corals produced at CAS in 2019 and 16 corals produced at CAS in 2020 had survived for two years and one year, respectively. We sequenced the full genomes of the 39 offspring corals and their 15 potential parents to a median 26x depth of coverage. We find clear differential parentage, with some parents producing the vast majority of offspring, while the majority of parents produced no surviving offspring. After scanning 12.9 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), we found 887 SNPs that may be under selection in the aquarium environment, and we identified the genes and pathways these SNPs may affect. We present recommendations for preserving standing genetic variation in aquarium-bred corals based on the results of this pilot project.

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“…Babcock (1985) showed the growth and mortality rates for three scleractinian corals in situ but only recorded the data in the third, fth, and ninth months. Although some long-term in situ observation studies were conducted, most of them examined after the coral recruits were visible to the naked eye (Guest et al 2014;dela Cruz and Harrison 2017;Henry et al 2021). Considering that this drastic bottleneck has profound implications on the population structure, dynamics, and capacity for recovery after disturbance, it is necessary to monitor the complete life cycle of corals after settlement.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ex situ reproduction and recruitment of scleractinian coral Galaxea fascicularis

Fang¹,

Cui²,

Wen³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Sexual reproduction plays an important role in the population and community structure maintenance in scleractinian corals, particularly in growth and development after larvae settlement. Despite this, only few studies have been conducted to monitor the post-settlement growth and development of scleractinian coral larvae. This study aimed to obtain this data by collecting adult Galaxea fascicularis colonies from Weizhou Island coast (21°00′–21°10′ N, 109°00′–109°15′ E) and recording their complete life cycle, from fertilization to recruitment, for one year ex situ. The results demonstrated that G. fascicularis could reproduce sexually when reared in a tank for 2 y. Their embryo produced a “prawn chip” that lacked a blastocoel, indicating that G. fascicularis is a complex coral. Larvae evidently showed association with zooxanthellae four days after settlement and completed metamorphosis after 1 month. The mean diameter of G. fascicularis recruits was 4.74 ± 1.12 mm, and the survival rate was only 5.60% in the first year, which may be attributed to their competition with algae. To increase their survival rate without the interference of algae, we suggest that the recruits of G. fascicularis be reared ex situ to complete metamorphosis (1 month) and then transferred to the field. This study improved our understanding of the early life cycle of scleractinian corals.

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Strategies for integrating sexually propagated corals into Caribbean reef restoration: experimental results and considerations

Cited by 12 publications

References 68 publications

Using relative return‐on‐effort scoring to evaluate a novel coral nursery in Malaysia

Using relative return‐on‐effort scoring to evaluate a novel coral nursery in Malaysia

Kinship and genetic variation in aquarium-spawned Acropora hyacinthus corals

Ex situ reproduction and recruitment of scleractinian coral Galaxea fascicularis

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