[Coral-List] Coral Reef Restoration in Florida

[Alison Moulding]

Dennis,
In the Caribbean, there are many organizations doing population enhancement work using coral nurseries primarily focusing on Acropora species. In Florida alone, over 16,000 colonies of Acropora were outplanted in 2014.  Most of the scientific publications have been about techniques or colony-based comparisons. The one publication that I know of that addresses more of the landscape questions you raise is Giffin et al. (2015). It documents the expansion of outplanted colonies of Acropora cervicornis into a thicket that occupies more than twice the footprint of the original restoration site. Although I don't think there is any published information, A. cervicornis in the Florida Keys has been observed to spawn 2 years after outplanting from the nursery onto the reef.

Here is a link to a YouTube video showing a NOAA outplanting effort and some shots of the site one year after outplanting.  Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tvfmWdZHR4&feature=youtu.be

I would love to see more scientific publications on longer term restoration success stories because they are definitely occurring. 

Sincerely,
Alison Moulding

Griffin, S. P., M. I. Nemeth, T. D. Moore, and B. Gintert. 2015. Restoration using Acropora cervicornis at the T/V MARGARA grounding site. Coral Reefs 34(3):885.
________________________________________
From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml..noaa.gov> on behalf of Dennis Hubbard <dennis.hubbard at oberlin.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2016 8:48 AM
To: Douglas Fenner
Cc: coral list
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Coral Reef Restoration in Florida

Hi all:

We've seen a number of these kinds of documentaries and have all seen
corals hung on clothes lines seemingly doing will. All the ones I've seen
have been in passing and, while local dives shops allude to it "working
great" I have never seen colonies out on the reef unless they settled there
on their own (lots of small to mid-sized *A. palmata*, for example).

Does anyone have references for papers that describe successful
"restoration" (i.e., corals growing out, reproducing and starting to create
even a small "reef community") using any of these methods?

Dennis

On Wed, Mar 2, 2016 at 12:39 AM, Douglas Fenner <
douglasfennertassi at gmail.com> wrote:

> Corals in the popular news:
>
> An Atlantic Magazine video on YouTube: "A Breakthrough for coral reef
> restoration"
>
> http://youtu.be/qHKpcnn5Tws
>
>
> Cheers,  Doug
>
>
>
> --
> Douglas Fenner
> Consultant, corals, coral reefs, coral identification
> "have regulator, will travel"
> PO Box 7390
> Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA
>
> phone 1 684 622-7084
>
> Join the International Society for Reef Studies.  Membership includes a
> subscription to the journal Coral Reefs, and there are discounts for pdf
> subscriptions and developing countries.  Check it out!  www.fit.edu/isrs/
>
> "Belief in climate change is optional, participation is not."- Jim Beever..
>   "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not to their own facts."-
> Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
>
> Sea level is now rising at the fastest rate in 3,000 years.
>
> http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/02/sea-levels-are-rising-their-fastest-rate-2000-years?utm_campaign=email-news-latest&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=292592
>
> http://mashable.com/2016/02/22/manmade-sea-level-rise-flooding/#fscPLGedCiqz
>
> January 2016 was the hottest January since records began in 1880.  The
> arctic was hottest by far.  This is the 9th straight monthly record heat.
>  (hiatus where art thou?)
>
> https://www.yahoo.com/news/january-2016-hottest-since-records-began-us-agency-212230867.html
>
> Miami is flooding: "The Siege of Miami, as temperatures rise, so will sea
> levels."  Sea level rising an inch a year there.
> http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/12/21/the-siege-of-miami
>
> website:  http://independent.academia.edu/DouglasFenner
>
> blog: http://ocean.si.edu/blog/reefs-american-samoa-story-hope
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--
Dennis Hubbard
Chair, Dept of Geology-Oberlin College Oberlin OH 44074
(440) 775-8346

* "When you get on the wrong train.... every stop is the wrong stop"*
 Benjamin Stein: "*Ludes, A Ballad of the Drug and the Dream*"
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