[Coral-List] Reef Restoration Genetics

[Kelvin Gorospe]

Hello Coral Listers,

I am a PhD Student at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa.  I am
writing a review paper on the genotypic diversity of coral reefs and
reef restoration methods and would greatly appreciate your input.  The
aim of the paper is to:  (1) review the literature to see how
genotypic diversity on coral reefs relates to coral health on both an
ecological and evolutionary time scale, (2) propose how reef
restoration projects may benefit from considering this information in
their methodologies, and (3) identify areas of coral genetic research
that should be pursued to bring scientific research closer to
conservation application.

I am specifically interested in learning more about past or current
reef restoration projects.  I am curious to know how much interest
there is (if any) in employing genetic tools or in considering the
population genetic implications of these methods.  For example, is
there any consideration given to how transplanting corals (and thus
introducing new genotypes) into a population might affect overall
population fitness?  Do reef restoration methods try to avoid
propagation of identical clones (for fear of creating clonal stands
susceptible to disease)?

Any ideas related to the above would be very helpful.

Thanks!

-Kelvin

-- 
Kelvin D. Gorospe
Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology
University of Hawai'i at Manoa
Department of Zoology, PhD Student