Abstract Summary
Coral reefs around the world are disappearing at an alarming rate, reducing its services to marine biodiversity and human communities. Coral researches, managers and conservationists have been implementing coral restoration methods to help deteriorated reefs go back to functional states or to recover to previous status. Although coral reefs in the Colombian Tropical Eastern Pacific (CTEP) have been bleached by past El Niño and subaerial exposure events, they still are in good health, appear to be sufficiently resilient and currently are not in need of restoration. However, the CTEP region is affected by rising seawater temperatures and acidification and coral restoration will be a necessity. Instead of waiting until restoration measures are needed, since 2015 we have been conducting a series of studies to gather essential information for future coral restoration projects at the Gorgona National Natural Park. We have estimated survival and growth rates of Pocillopora damicornis fragments in nurseries and in situ environments as function of their size, coral/algae cover, and abundance of fish corallivores. Fragment survival and growth increased with size in nurseries but decreased with size after transplantation because larger fragments were negatively affected by corallivores. Fragment morphology seems to play a key role, as fragments with most complex morphology appear to suffer less predation. Other studies on the massive coral Pavona clavus included the use of coral nurseries and CaCO3 enriched substrates. P. clavus survival and growth was affected by the genotype of donor colonies but not by substrate type. Additionally, ground nurseries, instead of floating or semi-submerged structures gave better results, since the latter type of structures were destroyed or severely damaged by floating wood and sea turtles. These results are important for coral reef restoration in the CTEP and can be used by managers and conservationist in case a catastrophic event occurs. We believe that gathering relevant information for reef restoration before it is needed can be key for the future of coral reefs.
