[Coral-List] article on restoration

Fri Dec 8 21:56:54 UTC 2023

Bula Doug and everyone,

Sorry I have just come back from Tuvalu dealing with an approaching
extinction level bleaching event.  Tuvalu has the most intact coral reefs I
have ever seen, as it has never had more than a condition-one bleaching
event.   Sadly, unless a cyclone passes nearby, these amazing coral reefs
will soon mostly be dead skeletons.  If anyone wanted to film huge
thick-branched staghorn coral thickets- many > 3 meters high, much like the
old photos of Jamaica and GBR of days long past, and to record
their demise, now is your absolute last chance.

I have been doing restoration longer than anyone, and I actually agree with
the overall conclusions of the recent Huges et al paper.  However, the
paper leaves us hanging and their conclusions are incomplete, because they
unfortunately did not access my recent publication and the proposed
reinvention of the field of coral restoration, where I advocate major
changes in restoration approach to account for the sorts of things they are
indicating.   Coral-Focused Climate Change Adaptation and Restoration Based
on Accelerating Natural Processes: Launching the “Reefs of Hope” Paradigm:
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-1924/4/1/2/pdf

Abstract: The widespread demise of coral reefs due to climate change is now
a certainty, and investing
in restoration without facing this stark reality risks failure. The 50
Reefs Initiative, the dominant
adaptation model for coral reefs is examined, and a new coral-focused
paradigm is proposed, based
on helping coral reefs adapt to rising temperature, to ensure that as many
coral species as possible
survive locally over time. With pilot sites established in six Pacific
Island nations, genebank nurseries
of bleaching resistant corals are secured in cooler waters, to help prevent
their demise as heat stress
increases. Unbleached corals selected during bleaching events are included.
>From these nurseries
corals are harvested to create nucleation patches of genetically diverse
pre-adapted corals, which
become reproductively, ecologically and biologically viable at reef scale,
spreading out over time.
This “Reefs of Hope” paradigm, modelled on tropical forest restoration,
creates dense coral patches,
using larger transplants or multiple small fragments elevated on
structures, forming fish habitat
immediately. The fish help increase coral and substratum health, which
presumably will enhance
natural larval-based recovery processes. We also hypothesize that incoming
coral recruits, attracted
to the patch, are inoculated by heat adapted algal symbionts, facilitating
adaptation of the wider reef.
With global emissions out of control, the most we can hope for is to buy
precious time for coral reefs
by saving coral species and coral diversity that will not likely survive
unassisted.

Friends, seriously!  We have just had a mass coral die-off in the West
Atlantic and Caribbean, and many restoration projects have had mass
mortalities.  We must reassess the old paradigms of restoration.  If
anything has worked or even survived in the face of >20DHW of stress, what
might we learn from this horrific catastrophe?  How can we restore a system
that is in the process of a free-fall collapse?   Our priorities must now
be to secure the genetic diversity that remains and to develop strategic
plans that take increasing heat stress into account.

For reefs with strong thermal gradients, from hot to warm to cool, local
translocation offers real potential, and so this is where I am putting all
of my efforts.  Is this restoration?  Is it facilitated adaptation?
Whatever we call it, the focus is on recognizing that we require emergency
measures to secure corals from the approaching mass extinction events.
Success should be measured in numbers of species and genotypes secured,
numbers of reproductive patches created on the reefs most likely to remain
below the bleaching threshold for the corals we are planting there, and so
forth.  Every genotype should also be included in in-situ nurseries located
in waters of lower heat stress, specially designed and ready to be shaded
during stress events.  For areas with the financial resources every
genotype should also be backed up in land based facilities, but we should
never give up on wild coral populations themselves, as there is no way we
can contain all the species which depend on living corals in closed
systems.  Other innovative approaches such as captive breeding, probiotics,
etc show promise and may be complementary. We need every tool that we can
get in this struggle, but it is a race against time to secure what remains,
so we need to work together, not in competition, but unfortunately the
donors and limited funds often set us against each other.

Right now the chances of any effective agreement leading to a reduction in
atmospheric carbon is less likely than a nuclear war, less likely than a
super volcano erupting, and less likely than a super solar storm throwing
us back into the stone age!  If we do not recognize this reality, then we
are missing our chance to save coral reefs.

I strongly believe that by changing our mental and operational models, we
can at least buy more time and prevent coral species from going extinct.

Regards,

Austin

PS: This is the short film we put together for COP28
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SSQE0x6nSM
We also welcome self-funded students and researchers to work with us on any
aspect of the new models that we are proposing.
Thus far we have been forced to survive mostly on volunteer support,
tourism industry support, and crowdfunding- so thanks to our supporters!

Austin Bowden-Kerby, PhD
Corals for Conservation
P.O. Box 4649 Samabula, Fiji Islands

https://www.corals4conservation.org
Publication on C4C's coral-focused climate change adaptation strategies:
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-1924/4/1/2/pdf
Film on our "Reefs of Hope" coral restoration for climate change adaptation
strategies:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG0lqKciXAA
TEDx talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PRLJ8zDm0U
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/
<https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/>

On Thu, Dec 7, 2023 at 9:19 AM Douglas Fenner via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

>        About a month ago, I posted a link to this article by Hughes et al
> on coral reef restoration.  I read the article as documenting a lot of
> shortcomings in coral restoration, based on lots of references.  Dead
> silence.  No one posted any response, and no one sent me an email about
> it.  So does that mean everyone accepts it??  Or does it mean everyone who
> does restoration is ignoring it and hoping everyone will forget it?  Or is
> everyone afraid to criticize it??  Seems hard to believe no one has any
> reaction to it.
>
> "Based on the evidence so far, coral restoration could make a small, albeit
> expensive, contribution to this endeavor." (the endeavor of trying to save
> reefs)
>
> Cheers, Doug
>
> Principles for coral reef restoration in the anthropocene
>
> *SUMMARY:  Coral reefs are critically important ecosystems that
> support coastal societies and economies throughout the tropical
> oceans. However, many of the world’s coral reefs are already seriously
> degraded, especially by over-fishing, pollution, and anthropogenic
> climate change. Consequently, a resurgence of ecological restoration
> programs is underway in an attempt to halt or reverse reef degradation
> and to develop new approaches in anticipation of further declines in
> coming decades. Some forms of rehabilitation of assemblages of corals
> may be feasible, affordable, and ethical—using currently available
> methods and capabilities—for very small areas (typically 1 km2 ) of
> high economic value, such as tourist sites. However, our review of the
> current and proposed restoration interventions indicates that more
> ambitious outcomes remain elusive and may even be counter-productive.
> In light of these challenges, we provide recommendations and a
> conceptual framework to guide future restoration
> projects and emerging approaches, highlighting that coral restoration
> is likely to continue to fail even at small scales unless climate
> change and other anthropogenic impacts are urgently reduced.*
> https://www.cell.com/one-earth/pdf/S2590-3322(23)00189-6.pdf
>
> open-access
>
> Cheers, Doug
>
>
>
> --
> Douglas Fenner
> Lynker Technologies, LLC, Contractor
> NOAA Fisheries Service
> Pacific Islands Regional Office
> Honolulu
> and:
> Coral Reef Consulting
> PO Box 997390
> Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799-6298  USA
>
> World's richest 1% emit as much as 5 billion people
> https://makerichpolluterspay.org/climate-equality-report/
>
> Huge expansion of fossil fuels planned, will be very destructive
>
> https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/08/insanity-petrostates-planning-huge-expansion-of-fossil-fuels-says-un-report
>
> "without policy changes, the world will heat up enough by the end of the
> century that more than 2 billion people will live in life-threatening hot
> climates"         Will you be in that area???
>
> https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-sounding-alarm-dangerous-problem-123000792.html
>
> World subsidies for fossil fuels reached an all-time high of over $1
> TRILLION in 2022, the last year for which data is available.  The subsidies
> MUST end.
>
>
> https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/fossil-fuel-subsidies-must-end/
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