Rapid developments in coral restoration represent a glimmer of hope for globally declining reefs. Despite these advancements, the world's oceans are becoming increasingly hostile to reef building corals. Considering only climate change amongst numerous stressors, a complete collapse of coral reefs m...

The Reef Restoration Program initiated by Oceanus, A.C supported by MARFund, SUMMIT Foundation and other partners is focused on strengthening resilience and adaptation potential of coral reefs to promote recovery of associated species of fish and invertebrates. The Program involves the transplant of...

Coral restoration is gaining increasing attention as a reef management strategy to address dramatic declines in coral cover worldwide. However, there is often a mismatch between the objectives of coral restoration programs and measures used to assess their effectiveness. Here, we used ten indicators...

CORAL RESTORATION IN MARINE PROTECTED AREAS, SUSTAINABILITY FOR WHO? A STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS OF FACTORS OF SUCCESS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ‘RECEPIENTS’ Daryl McPhee, Lynne Armitage, Igo Gari, Faculty of Society and Design, Bond University, 14 University, Robina, Queensland 4226, Australia Sustain...

To predict restoration success requires an understanding of the factors influencing growth and survivorship of coral species. Here we use empirically-derived matrix population models to generate estimates of stage-specific growth, survivorship, and fertility for Acropora palmata, A. cervicornis, and...

The long-spined sea urchin (Diadema antillarum) was once an abundant reef grazing herbivore throughout the Caribbean. Benthic surveys in the Florida Keys during the 1960-70s revealed average densities of five to ten individuals per square meter. During the early 1980s, 98-99% of Diadema antillarum p...

The staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis, was previously a major reef-building scleractinian coral throughout Florida and the Caribbean, but since in the 1980s the species has experienced unprecedented population declines primarily due to disease and bleaching. As a result, the species was listed as...

The severe loss of hard coral cover over the past 30 years has prompted an interest in reef restoration by transplanting coral fragments. However, not all coral transplants are equally successful and the ecological conditions necessary for transplant resiliency in the face of disturbances are not we...

In March 2017, size class experiments for micro-fragments (1-and 5-cm) were set up for two species placed on in situ nurseries (Acropora palmata and Orbicella annularis) and two species directly outplanted to the reef (A. palmata and D. clivosa) in southern Belize. Based on the first month’s initi...

Staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis, is a threatened species that has declined more than 90% throughout the Caribbean since the late 1970s due to mortality from disease, hurricanes, bleaching, and predation. Outplanting of nursery-reared corals has become an established technique to enhance A. cerv...

Iberostar is a Spanish based luxury hotel group with over 100 hotels focused in Europe and the Caribbean. With more than 80% of our hotels on the beachfront, we have always applied a policy of sustainable and responsible management with the environments in which we develop our activity, because we u...

Restoring coral populations on degraded reefs using nursery grown corals is an evolving science and an art. A variety of in situ coral nursery and outplanting techniques have been developed around the world in an attempt to “restore” degraded reefs. These techniques often employ a larger central...

Recent major hurricanes in the Caribbean have emphasized the vulnerability of coastal communities to wave energy from extreme events. Episodic extreme wave energy can not only damage corals (e.g., breakage, overturning) and reef structure (e.g., fractures to reef framework), but also can impact coas...

Until recently, most restoration efforts in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary focused primarily on Natural Resource Damage Assessment for coral reefs, seagrass, and mangroves following mechanical injuries caused by human activities. Debris removal, framework repair, transplantation, infilli...

On Febuary 5th 2010, the Vogetrader ship ran aground on a coral reef off the south west shore of O’ahu, HI resulting in a settlement to provide funding for compensatory coral reef restoration projects. Previous successful emergency restoration efforts have focused on the reattachment of corals tha...

The abundance of corals has declined significantly over past decades, to the point where several reef-building species in the Caribbean are now listed as threatened. Active reef restoration has expanded exponentially to help recover degraded coral populations and the ecological services associated w...

Coral reefs provide critical services to human communities worldwide such as: fisheries, costal protection and cultural benefits. In Dominical Republic (DR), as in all tropical parts over the world, the coral cover and these services are diminishing due to local and global threats; and now, we know ...

Crown-of-Thorns Starfish (CoTS) population outbreaks are one of the major threats to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). They are also the threat that is most directly and immediately manageable in the short term through active control. The scale of the CoTS problem, however, threatens to dwarf the resour...

The environmental crisis faced by scientists and policy makers today is complex, and relentless. Deconstructing these intractable problems into smaller design questions is a common, yet powerful, tool in solving many contemporary, interdisciplinary hurdles. While technological innovation is benefici...

The goal of restoration programs is to ensure long-term success. In Mexico, coral restoration programs began 12 years ago, nevertheless, there is no reliable information on the location and characteristics of the restoration sites, and no monitoring data post out-planting. To determine if there are ...

Acropora cervicornis was restored on two sites (Jeff Davis and Playa Lechi) on Bonaire and monitored for 1 year. Playa Lechi is located in front of the main city of Kralendijk while Jeff Davis is 7 km north. On each site 50 one meter quadrats were installed covering approximately an area of 150m2. O...

Although some resilient coral reefs are being monitored in the past decades and still present signs of health and integrity, most of the coral reefs close to unustainable development areas are being exposed to high stress and degradation. The coral reefs scientists should inform industrial developer...

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 curbi...

Southeast Florida has no shortage of coastal construction projects with permit-required avoidance and minimization efforts to move scleractinian corals out of harm’s way, and mitigation for anticipated project impacts. The authors propose a novel data organization and visualization tool for use wi...

Many factors go into decisions of where and what species to use for restoration, including reef-protection status, presence of live corals, historic coral success, and environmental conditions at sites being considered. We report on a study, started in 2009, measuring coral-calcification rates at si...

Across the greater Caribbean and Florida there are a growing number of programs aiding in the enhancement of coral reefs through coral propagation. As new programs begin or established programs scale-up their efforts there is a need to provide guidance through best management practices and lessons l...

Precipitous declines in coral reef and mangrove habitats worldwide threaten food security, livelihoods, and infrastructure for coastal societies. Is it possible to restore the ecological functionality of damaged habitats? What factors mediate the success of restoration efforts? Here I describe why m...

The health and resilience of coral reefs are dwindling as reefs are confronted by a suite of stressors: elevated seawater temperatures, eutrophication, overfishing, pollution, and disease. In 2014, a new coral disease was first reported off South Florida (USA) and has since spread across the Florida...

Coral reefs naturally protect coasts from erosion and flooding by attenuating wave energy and supplying sediment to the adjacent beaches. Declines in reef condition coupled with increasing rates of global sea level rise are jeopardizing communities and coastal infrastructure. The typical hard engine...

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has used a range of coral restoration techniques over the last 25 years. Restoration efforts have focused on injuries associated with ship groundings and anchoring incidents. Lessons learned have helped refine both the technical aspects and...