Near‐term impacts of coral restoration on target species, coral reef community structure, and ecological processes

Ladd, Mark C.; Burkepile, Deron E.; Shantz, Andrew A.

doi:10.1111/rec.12939

Cited by 46 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…) and how to scale restoration to a level at which it will have a significant impact on reef ecology and function (Rinkevich , Ladd et al. ); however, using the geological foundations of western Atlantic reefs to guide what species should be restored is a critical first step in optimizing the outcomes of coral‐reef management.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The unprecedented loss of Florida's reef‐building corals and the emergence of a novel coral‐reef assemblage

Toth

Stathakopoulos

Kuffner

et al. 2019

Ecology

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Over the last half century, climate change, coral disease, and other anthropogenic disturbances have restructured coral‐reef ecosystems on a global scale. The disproportionate loss of once‐dominant, reef‐building taxa has facilitated relative increases in the abundance of “weedy” or stress‐tolerant coral species. Although the recent transformation of coral‐reef assemblages is unprecedented on ecological timescales, determining whether modern coral reefs have truly reached a novel ecosystem state requires evaluating the dynamics of reef composition over much longer periods of time. Here, we provide a geologic perspective on the shifting composition of Florida's reefs by reconstructing the millennial‐scale spatial and temporal variability in reef assemblages using 59 Holocene reef cores collected throughout the Florida Keys Reef Tract (FKRT). We then compare the relative abundances of reef‐building species in the Holocene reef framework to data from contemporary reef surveys to determine how much Florida's modern reef assemblages have diverged from long‐term baselines. We show that the composition of Florida's reefs was, until recently, remarkably stable over the last 8000 yr. The same corals that have dominated shallow‐water reefs throughout the western Atlantic for hundreds of thousands of years, Acropora palmata, Orbicella spp., and other massive coral taxa, accounted for nearly 90% of Florida's Holocene reef framework. In contrast, the species that now have the highest relative abundances on the FKRT, primarily Porites astreoides and Siderastrea siderea, were rare in the reef framework, suggesting that recent shifts in species assemblages are unprecedented over millennial timescales. Although it may not be possible to return coral reefs to pre‐Anthropocene states, our results suggest that coral‐reef management focused on the conservation and restoration of the reef‐building species of the past, will optimize efforts to preserve coral reefs, and the valuable ecosystem services they provide into the future.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The unprecedented loss of Florida's reef‐building corals and the emergence of a novel coral‐reef assemblage

Toth

Stathakopoulos

Kuffner

et al. 2019

Ecology

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“…[47]) but does not specifically account for the number and sizes of holes and crevices present in the reef matrix, which may affect the abundance and diversity of fish and invertebrates [60]. In the Florida Keys and St Croix, a lack of difference in structural complexity between restored and control reference treatments reflects the fact that most of the complexity at these locations is provided by the presence or absence of thickets of branching Acropora, which are the targets of the restoration efforts [61].…”

Section: Restoration Increases Coral Cover and Structural Complexitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Coral Restoration Effectiveness: Multiregional Snapshots of the Long-Term Responses of Coral Assemblages to Restoration

et al. 2020

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Coral restoration is rapidly becoming a mainstream strategic reef management response to address dramatic declines in coral cover worldwide. Restoration success can be defined as enhanced reef functions leading to improved ecosystem services, with multiple benefits at socio-ecological scales. However, there is often a mismatch between the objectives of coral restoration programs and the metrics used to assess their effectiveness. In particular, the scales of ecological benefits currently assessed are typically limited in both time and space, often being limited to short-term monitoring of the growth and survival of transplanted corals. In this paper, we explore reef-scale responses of coral assemblages to restoration practices applied in four well-established coral restoration programs. We found that hard coral cover and structural complexity were consistently greater at restored compared to unrestored (degraded) sites. However, patterns in coral diversity, coral recruitment, and coral health among restored, unrestored, and reference sites varied across locations, highlighting differences in methodologies among restoration programs. Altogether, differences in program objectives, methodologies, and the state of nearby coral communities were key drivers of variability in the responses of coral assemblages to restoration. The framework presented here provides guidance to improve qualitative and quantitative assessments of coral restoration efforts and can be applied to further understanding of the role of restoration within resilience-based reef management.

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“…However, our intent is not to dismiss biomarker research. As our cost/benefit calculations suggest, biomarkers could represent a significant savings per restoration project, and may be useful in situations where a few species have the potential to restore the ecological services a complex reef provides, as may be the case with Caribbean acroporids (but see Ladd et al, 2019). For more complex systems, such as the Great Barrier Reef, it may be worthwhile to focus efforts on select species which play critical roles in recovery, and additional research to identify target species should be prioritized before investing in biomarker development.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Growth and survival of outplants is highly variable, both among genotypes and reef sites (Bowden‐Kerby, ; Drury, Manzello, & Lirman, ; Lirman et al., ), and practitioners currently have no way of reliably matching source corals with their optimum outplant destinations. Moreover, outplanting success does not necessarily equate to restoration of ecological function (Ladd, Burkepile, & Shantz, )…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Growth and survival of outplants is highly variable, both among genotypes and reef sites (Bowden-Kerby, 2008;Drury, Manzello, & Lirman, 2017;Lirman et al, 2014), and practitioners currently have no way of reliably matching source corals with their optimum outplant destinations. Moreover, outplanting success does not necessarily equate to restoration of ecological function (Ladd, Burkepile, & Shantz, 2019) Although maximizing genetic diversity of restored coral populations is paramount (Baums et al, 2019), there is also a growing desire to identify and outplant the most resilient corals, such as those less susceptible to disease outbreaks or more tolerant of temperature stress (e.g., van Oppen, Oliver, Putnam, & Gates, 2015). One impediment to achieving this goal is determining what readily quantifiable phenotypes are most indicative of resilience (for more detailed consideration, see Baums et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Molecular tools for coral reef restoration: Beyond biomarker discovery

Parkinson

Baker

Baums

et al. 2019

CONSERVATION LETTERS

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As coral reefs continue to decline due to climate change and other stressors, scientists have proposed adopting genomic tools, such as biomarkers, to aid in the conservation and restoration of these threatened ecosystems. Biomarkers are easily measured indicators of biological processes that can be used to predict or diagnose health, resilience, and other key performance metrics. The ultimate goal of developing biomarkers is to determine the conservation value and utility of a given coral colony, including the host animal, its algal symbionts, and their microbial partners. However, this goal remains distant because most efforts have not yet moved beyond the initial discovery phase. We review recent progress in the development of coral molecular biomarkers from a practical standpoint and consider the many challenges that remain as roadblocks to large‐scale implementation. We caution practitioners that, while biomarkers are a promising technology, they are unlikely to be available for field application in the near future barring a rapid shift in research focus from discovery to subsequent validation and field trials. To facilitate such a shift, we propose a stepwise framework to guide additional study in this area, with the aim of accelerating practical molecular biomarker development to enhance coral restoration practice.

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Near‐term impacts of coral restoration on target species, coral reef community structure, and ecological processes

Cited by 46 publications

References 55 publications

The unprecedented loss of Florida's reef‐building corals and the emergence of a novel coral‐reef assemblage

The unprecedented loss of Florida's reef‐building corals and the emergence of a novel coral‐reef assemblage

Coral Restoration Effectiveness: Multiregional Snapshots of the Long-Term Responses of Coral Assemblages to Restoration

Molecular tools for coral reef restoration: Beyond biomarker discovery

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