[Coral-List] 12 ICRS Session 20a: Restoration of Coral Reefs

[Guest, James R]

Dear colleagues,



We would like to invite you to submit an abstract for the mini-symposium "Restoration of Coral Reefs" (20a) at the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium to be held in Cairns, Australia from the 9-13 July 2012.



What role can coral reef restoration play in promoting recovery of degraded reefs?



Active restoration can potentially play an important role in hastening recovery processes on reefs following disturbances, although the discipline of marine ecological restoration is still in its infancy compared to terrestrial restoration. There is still much debate about the role and value of active coral reef restoration and considerable research is needed before valid recommendations can be made to coastal managers. Much of the research into coral reef restoration has focused on the practices of asexual coral propagation and transplantation or the physical stabilisation or introduction of hard substrate (i.e. artificial reefs). More recently attention has been given to sexual propagation of corals for large scale restoration, although research in this area is still in its infancy. The aim of this mini-symposium will be to present the most current research in reef restoration and to stimulate debate about what are the most pressing future research directions in this field. Research areas of particular interest include: cost benefit analysis of reef restoration efforts, scaling-up of restoration activities, selective breeding of resistant corals and the role that restoration can play in the face of global climate change.



If there is sufficient time we also hope to form a panel and open the floor for questions, discussion and debate about the state of the science and the most important future directions in this emerging field.



Please submit your abstracts through the 12th ICRS web site (http://www.icrs2012.com) before October 1st.



We look forward to seeing you in Cairns in 2012.



Best wishes



James Guest

Buki Rinkevich

Andrew Bauman