Abstract Summary
Coral reefs are increasingly under threat from anthropogenic disturbances, and live coral cover has been declining around the globe for the past decades. Halting this trend will require a multi-faceted approach across several scales using a wide variety of responses. Large-scale solutions like curbing climate change, improving water quality and reducing pollutants in oceans are critical for the persistence of coral reefs. However, these tend to be slow to implement and require large-scale commitment at the government level. This has led to a growing interest in direct interventions on coral reefs, in particular outside the scientific community. Citizen scientists, tourism operators and NGO’s have implemented hundreds of small-scale coral restoration projects around the world’s coral reefs, often with very little financial backing or scientific support. This disconnect between the scientific community and coral restoration practitioners represents a lost opportunity for both groups. To mitigate this, we reviewed the current scientific literature describing coral restoration methods, surveyed coral restoration practitioners and scoured the internet for descriptions of methods published in non-traditional channels. Here, we present the results from this comprehensive review of methods, and share technical lessons learned and key issues to look out for concerning each of the main methods. In this talk, we use the online interactive visualisation and database we developed to share that information in a layered approach with scientists, managers and practitioners.
