Adoption of coral propagation and out-planting via the tourism industry to advance site stewardship on the northern Great Barrier Reef

Howlett, Lorna; Camp, Emma F.; Edmondson, John; Edmondson, Jenny; Agius, Taryn; Hosp, Russell; Coulthard, Philip; Edmondson, Steve; Suggett, David J.

doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2022.106199

Cited by 26 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 53 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…To examine differences in coral-associated bacterial communities among coral fragments out-planted at each reef site with contrasting characteristics, we performed a transplantation experiment using the coral species A. millepora. This species is routinely grown in coral nurseries and used for out-planting on the GBR (e.g., Howlett et al 2022) and exhibits microbiome variability over time and space via these propagation steps at Opal Reef (Strudwick et al 2022).…”

Section: Sampling Location and Experimental Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even so, to date there has been little quanti cation and comparison of long-term out-plant survival and associated bacterial community composition across reef sites with contrasting environmental conditions on the GBR. Most studies have only quanti ed survival of out-planted Acroporid spp (van Woesik et al 2017(van Woesik et al , 2020Howlett et al 2022) or monitored bacterial communities of out-planted corals for short periods of time (1-30 days, Strudwick et al 2022). Here we show that on the northern GBR reef environmental conditions, out-plant survival, and coral associated bacterial communities all exhibit inter-site variability.…”

Section: Out-plant Survival and Associated Bacterial Communities Vari...mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Bacterial communities associated with corals out-planted on the Great Barrier Reef are inherently dynamic over space and time

Strudwick

Seymour

Camp

et al. 2023

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In light of accelerating pressures faced by coral reef ecosystems, coral propagation and out-planting are becoming vital components of reef stewardship strategies aimed to improve reef resilience through enhanced natural recovery and rehabilitation. The coral microbiome has a crucial role in the success of the coral holobiont and can be impacted shortly after out-planting, yet long-term characterisation of the out-plant microbiome, assessment of related survival and how this varies across sites is unexplored. We examined the bacterial communities associated with out-planted Acropora millepora corals and monitored coral survival over 12 months (February 2021-22) across three reef sites – Mojo, Rayban and Sandbox at Opal Reef (16°12'18"S 145°53'54"E), Great Barrier Reef (GBR) – with contrasting environmental features (e.g. exposure to oceanic currents and previous thermal stress impacts). Bacterial communities of out-planted corals exhibited significant changes from donor colonies 7–45 days after out-planting and bacterial community composition differed significantly across sites Sandbox and Rayban with low overall survival (0–43%) versus Mojo with higher (47–75%) overall survival. We interpret the different rate of change of coral associated bacterial community composition after out-planting, site-specific composition of bacterial communities, and differential survival of out-plants across sites to indicate the importance of site-selection in shaping coral bacterial communities and subsequent out-plant success. This research highlights, the need to resolve drivers of small-scale site differences alongside higher resolution spatiotemporal monitoring of environmental conditions to distinguish key drivers of microbial change during out-planting and subsequently inform out-plant site selection to optimise future management efforts.

show abstract

Section: Sampling Location and Experimental Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Out-plant Survival and Associated Bacterial Communities Vari...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Bacterial communities associated with corals out-planted on the Great Barrier Reef are inherently dynamic over space and time

Strudwick

Seymour

Camp

et al. 2023

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Acropora intermedia was chosen in these experiments for their native distribution on the Luhuitou reefs. This species has also been used in previous transplantation experiments and is characterized by high survival rates and growth rates after more than 1 year of transplantation (Smith & Hughes 1999; dela Cruz et al 2014; Howlett et al 2022), and it also has a good self‐attachment capacity and return‐on‐effort during the transplantation/outplanting (Smith & Hughes 1999; Suggett et al 2019). Similar diameter fragments with 8–12 cm lengths were randomly collected from coral nursery in the Luhuitou reefs on 28 December 2021 to reduce the differences caused by different genotypes.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Actions to achieve rapid coral self‐attachment: insights from outplanting nails, coral orientation, and substrate biological condition

Huang

Liu

et al. 2023

Restoration Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Coral outplanting is a potential method for restoring coral cover in degraded reefs. Rapid coral self‐attachment is key to successful outplanting. Although many technical details have been noted during coral outplanting, it remains unclear how nail type and coral orientation affect the outplanting success. To test the effect of nails and coral orientations on outplanted Acropora intermedia corals over 8 months in Luhuitou Reef, China, three nails (normal, cross, and eta) were selected based on their ability to limit coral movement and combined with two axial corallite orientations (upright and upside‐down). Survival, growth, and especially coral tissue growth on nails or substrates were monitored during the experiment. The survival, partial tissue mortality, and growth showed no significant difference between treatments. However, the ratio of normal nail self‐attachment to the reef substrate was significantly lower than with eta nails. Self‐attachment to the substrate of the upside‐down group was significantly higher than in the upright group. The results have suggested eta nails and upside‐down orientation are most favorable for coral self‐attachment. The sea cucumber Ocnus sanya outbreak at one experiment site gave us the opportunity to study the effects of species interactions on outplanted corals, showing that O. sanya may increase coral tissue mortality by staying at the corals' base and reducing their self‐attachment to the reef. These findings highlight the importance of considering nail type, coral orientation, and substrate biological competition on coral self‐attachment during outplanting.

show abstract

“…Our cost analysis focuses on CNP coral planting activities at sites on the northern GBR approximately 30-50 km offshore from Cairns to Cape Tribulation, between August 2018 and December 2021 (Fig. 1; see also Howlett et al 2022Howlett et al , 2023. Coral planting and propagation activity was initiated by one tourism operator at Opal Reef in August 2018 (under permit G18/40023.1).…”

Section: Cnp Operational Context Activity and Data Capturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regardless of funding source (e.g., externally funded or "in-kind" tourism staff time), all coral planting trips during the study period were considered for inclusion in our cost analysis. We did not include the capital costs of nursery frames in this current exercise (approximately US$60 per frame, holding as many as 150 corals-depending on size-at any one time; see Suggett et al 2020) since: (1) CoO accounted for approximately 90% of coral outplants during this period (Howlett et al 2022);…”

Section: Cnp Operational Context Activity and Data Capturementioning

confidence: 99%

Cost‐effectiveness of tourism‐led coral planting at scale on the northern Great Barrier Reef

Scott,

Edmondson,

Camp

et al. 2024

Restoration Ecology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Stakeholder‐led coral reef restoration efforts, aimed at locally retaining or rebuilding coral populations, have rapidly grown over the last two decades. However, the cost‐effectiveness—and in turn viability—of coral restoration projects remains rarely reported. We therefore evaluated coral planting (often termed “outplanting”) cost‐effectiveness across the first 3.5 years of the Coral Nurture Program (CNP), a coral restoration approach integrated within tourism operations on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. CNP operator activity reporting forms (63,632 corals planted, 5 tourism operators, and 23 reef sites) were used to opportunistically calculate coral planting costs (PC; US$ coral−1 trip−1) for “routine” planting versus when additional stewardship activities—that regulate planting effectiveness—were undertaken (e.g., nursery maintenance). Mean PC (±standard error) was US$2.34 ± 0.20 coral−1 trip−1 (ranging US$0.78–6.03, 5th–95th percentile), but increased 2‐ to ‐6‐fold on trips where nursery propagation, site maintenance, or staff training was conducted to support planting efforts. The “realized” cost (PCR) of establishing coral biomass was subsequently determined by evaluating survivorship of planted corals across space (9 sites, single survey timepoint, n = 4,723 corals up to 3 years old) or over time (2 sites, over 9–12 months, n = 600 corals), resulting in costs increasing from PC to PCR by 25–71%. We demonstrate how integration of practices into tourism operations creates potential for cost‐effective coral planting at “high‐value” tourism reef sites, and discuss important steps for improving cost‐accounting in stakeholder‐led restoration programs that may be similarly positioned to routinely determine their cost‐effectiveness.

show abstract

Adoption of coral propagation and out-planting via the tourism industry to advance site stewardship on the northern Great Barrier Reef

Cited by 26 publications

References 53 publications

Bacterial communities associated with corals out-planted on the Great Barrier Reef are inherently dynamic over space and time

Bacterial communities associated with corals out-planted on the Great Barrier Reef are inherently dynamic over space and time

Actions to achieve rapid coral self‐attachment: insights from outplanting nails, coral orientation, and substrate biological condition

Cost‐effectiveness of tourism‐led coral planting at scale on the northern Great Barrier Reef

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About