Abstract Summary
Measuring the performance of coral phenotypes can link genotypes to their environment, potentially allowing practitioners to cultivate species and genotypes that are particularly well suited for restoration projects. Yet, performance depends on interactions between individuals and their local environment that are difficult to predict and trade-offs between desirable traits, such as growth and thermal tolerance, may be common. As a result, ensuring a diversity of corals are present in outplant populations that can thrive under future ocean conditions will provide resilience to restored populations. To that end, tracking key traits in nursery populations will not only help restoration practitioners optimize their nursery stock, but can ensure that such a diverse suite of potentially important traits is represented in outplanting designs. However, traits are not all equally relevant to success and measuring some traits can be technically challenging, time consuming, and expensive. Therefore, establishing consistent guidelines for collecting a minimum level of the most informative data is important for optimally managing nurseries. Here, we highlight several key phenotypic traits that correlate well with the performance and survival of corals on the reef. Specifically, we recommend tracking the rates of survival, wound healing, and skeletal growth, along with disease and bleaching susceptibility, and reproductive output for every genotype maintained in the nursery. We provide a standardized, low-cost protocol to measure each trait that will facilitate comparisons between genotypes, nurseries, and regions. By focusing on propagating corals with a high degree of phenotypic resilience to climate change, restoration practitioners can outplant genetically diverse populations with the greatest potential to survive, adapt, and acclimatize to changing environments.
