Effects of the COVID‐19 lockdowns on the management of coral restoration projects

Abstract

Coral restoration initiatives are gaining significant momentum in a global effort to enhance the recovery of degraded coral reefs. However, the implementation and upkeep of coral nurseries are particularly demanding, so that unforeseen breaks in maintenance operations might jeopardize well‐established projects. In the last 2 years, the COVID‐19 pandemic has resulted in a temporary yet prolonged abandonment of several coral gardening infrastructures worldwide, including remote localities. Here we provide a first assessment of the potential impacts of monitoring and maintenance breakdown in a suite of coral restoration projects (based on floating rope nurseries) in Colombia, Seychelles, and Maldives. Our study comprises nine nurseries from six locations, hosting a total of 3,554 fragments belonging to three coral genera, that were left unsupervised for a period spanning from 29 to 61 weeks. Floating nursery structures experienced various levels of damage, and total fragment survival spanned from 40 to 95% among projects, with Pocillopora showing the highest survival rate in all locations present. Overall, our study shows that, under certain conditions, abandoned coral nurseries can remain functional for several months without suffering critical failure from biofouling and hydrodynamism. Still, even where gardening infrastructures were only marginally affected, the unavoidable interruptions in data collection have slowed down ongoing project progress, diminishing previous investments and reducing future funding opportunities. These results highlight the need to increase the resilience and self‐sufficiency of coral restoration projects, so that the next global lockdown will not further shrink the increasing efforts to prevent coral reefs from disappearing.

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

“…While cost factors across these operational contexts remained the same (e.g., wages and equipment costs), higher costs were predominantly the result of fewer corals planted relative to staff wages (lower PO). Such an outcome is consistent with other coral propagation projects employing intermediate nursery propagation phases, owing to added capital costs for nursery materials and labor requirements for cleaning and maintenance (e.g., Shafir & Rinkevich 2010; Montano et al 2022). However, while nursery propagation and maintenance move focus from coral planting, coral nurseries provide readily available (Bostrom‐Einarsson et al 2020; Howlett et al 2022, 2023) and selected‐for coral stock (Baums et al 2019; Shaver et al 2022), thereby reducing time required for coral material collection on planting days.…”

Coral spawning patterns of Acropora across two Maldivian reef ecosystems

“…Coral bleaching has been shown to decrease reproductive potential of survivors ( Leinbach et al, 2021 ), reduce gamete numbers ( Ward, Harrison & Hoegh-Guldberg, 2000 ), and lead to a long-term impact on reproduction over multiple spawning periods ( Levitan et al, 2014 ). To alleviate these impacts on coral reef ecosystems, restoration initiatives that manipulate asexual propagation were implemented not only in the Maldives but worldwide ( Boström-Einarsson et al, 2020 ; Montano et al, 2022 ). As the persistence of coral populations rely on the success of natural recruitment through reproduction ( Richmond, Tisthammer & Spies, 2018 ), it is imperative we understand reproductive patterns to predict population recovery following disturbance in the Maldives.…”