Abstract Summary
In Florida, coral reefs have experienced up to a 98% loss in the populations of Acropora coral. This decline can be attributed to multiple compounding factors including overfishing, poor water quality, extreme water temperatures, and the loss of herbivores. As these threats continue - and potentially worsen – there is a clear need for innovative methods to help abate stressors on coral reefs. Active coral restoration (or population enhancement) has emerged as the primary method to manage the loss of coral reef habitat and potentially reverse population decline for specific geographic regions. While there are many restoration organizations using diverse of techniques, coral restoration practices remain relatively new, understudied, and poised to benefit from focused attention to improve scalability. For active coral restoration to be impactful at a large scale, restoration techniques must increase the capacity to produce, outplant and track corals through the restoration process. The field of coral restoration will continue to evolve as techniques improve and our collective insight becomes shared amongst managers, restoration practitioners and researchers. It is the purpose of this white paper to share the lessons learned and techniques developed by the Coral Restoration Foundation (CRF) as we scaled our nursery and outplanting efforts 10-fold over 3 years in order to engage restoration practice at ecologically meaningful scales. In October 2013, CRF was awarded a three-year grant for coral reef restoration from the NOAA Restoration Center, Office of Habitat Conservation (award number NA13NMF4630144). Supported in part by this grant, CRF was able to develop both the techniques and the infrastructure needed to support coral restoration efforts on an order of magnitude higher than previous projects. Herein, we highlight the most significant lessons learned in order to assist other restoration groups in their expansion of techniques for scalable Acropora restoration projects. Our goal is to share what we learned in order to promote the enhancement and success of large-scale coral restoration efforts.
