Abstract Summary
The worldwide decrease in coral cover often reflects the impact of accelerated and poorly planned development of coastal human communities. This is the case of the Pacific coast of northern Costa Rica, which 20 years ago was considered one of the sites with the greatest reef development in the country. Today the reef is significantly deteriorated, due to a combination of both natural phenomena, such as El Niño, and anthropogenic disturbances such as water eutrophication and over fishing. There is much interest in assisting the recovery of these reefs, which will require a combination of coastal management and active reef restoration. We are evaluating ex-situ coral culture for its utility in active restoration of the two main reef building species of this region: massive Porites spp. and branching Pocillopora spp. The controlled conditions allow us to evaluate factors affecting their survival and growth in culture. Preliminary results suggest high survival for both species (Porites spp. = 77% and Pocillopora spp. = 83%) as well as rapid growth rates (Porites spp. = 1.62 cm2/month and Pocillopora spp. = 0.30 cm2/month). The survival and growth rates of Porites spp., in particular, are higher than those for the same species cultivated in underwater nurseries on the Pacific coast of southern Costa Rica (Villalobos et al. in prep.). We hypothesize that ex situ cultivation eliminates competition of Porites microfragments with algae and other organisms that settle on the ceramic discs. We also observe that growth rates of Pocillopora spp. mounted on ceramic discs are slower than those suspended by monofilament. We present the pros and cons of in situ versus ex situ culture for these important Pacific species of Latin America.
