Abstract Summary
Maldivian hermatypic coral reefs have been exposed to disturbances for more than two centuries (Brown and Dunne 1988). Coral is not only the basis of which the Maldives is formed but, historically the founding blocks for houses, businesses, and mosques (Sluka and Miller 1998). Subsequent to the first coral bleaching event in the Maldives in 1998 sparked the apprehensiveness for the future of the reefs (Goreau et al. 2001). Since then Maldives has been exposed to another major coral bleaching event (2016). As a result many of the tourist resorts have responded with numerous techniques to rejuvenate their house reefs. Although there are extensive coral restoration projects in the Maldives, there is limited literature establishing the success of such projects. This paper is the first to elucidate the success of three methods of coral restoration in the Maldives and advises room for future improvements. Methods Coral transplantation: Methods adapted from Edwards and Gomez (2007) transplantation techniques. Coral modular frames: Methods adapted from Edwards (2010). Coral gardening: Adapted from Frias-Torres S, Montoya-Maya PH, Shah N.J (Eds.) (2015). Ecological measures of coral health were collected. Preliminary data indicates that the three methods have their strengths and weaknesses. So far the coral gardening technique proves to be the most successfully with respect to survival rates. Due to the relatively long nursery phase no immediate rejuvenation results are initially seen on the reef, extending the amount of time before resort guests experience visual impacts from the project. Nevertheless the nursery phase provides larger and more resilient coral colonies with respect to total size and coral health respectively. Although direct relocation methods give an immediate visual impact to the reef they indicated significantly lower and marginally lower growth and survival rates compared to the coral gardening project for the transplantation and modular frame methods, respectively. Evaluating such popular reef restoration methods is extremely important for both the development of the projects, and also for increased understanding for best practises of these restoration tools for reef managers.
