[Coral-List] Coral regeneration projects

Phanor Hernando Montoya Maya phmontoyamaya at gmail.com
Sat Jul 3 21:39:43 UTC 2021


>
> Dear all,
Let me re-send an email sent June 23 2021 to the coral-list in response to
the one million coral for Colombia project that sparked this thread about
coral regeneration projects.
Somehow it got lost in the email threads.
I think it is relevant to answer and comment on your concerns about this
and other coral reef restoration projects. We work from our documented
experience and following most recent best practices, guidelines and
scientific literature in ecological restoration of coral reefs.
I also invite you to check the review and database on coral reef
restoration that is held on the ICRI website, which host most of the
scientific literature use to design the project : Boström-Einarsson L,
Ceccarelli D, Cook N, Hein M, Smith A, McLeod IM. (2020). Data from: Coral
restoration – A systematic review of successes, failures and future
directions. Dryad Digital Repository. doi:10.5061/dryad.p6r3816
https://www.icriforum.org/restoration/coral-restoration-database/

Stay safe,

Phanor H Montoya-Maya, Ph.D.
Director Corales de Paz
Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner #0514
Research Associate CEMARIN

>  Dear Nohora, rrreefs team and coral-listers,
>
> Thank you very much for allowing me to bring up the latest news from
> Colombia on coral reef conservation and restoration to the coral-list: the
> government of Colombia has joined the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
> with the launching of the initiative One Million Corals for Colombia. This
> is the very first time that the national government of Colombia includes
> coral reef restoration within its agenda. A milestone for all researchers,
> practitioners, and environmental authorities working on this discipline
> since the early 2000s. Here is a long email explaining the Why, How, and
> What of this initiative in a bullet form.
>
> The Why:
> - Although Colombia has National Natural Parks and marine protected areas
> that protect almost 90% of its coral reefs, no clear signs of reef recovery
> have been observed after significant degradation due to natural
> disturbances in the 1980s and the average coral coverage continues to
> decline.  The slow recovery of reefs in protected areas has been explained
> by the continuous impact of human actions within MPAs and by a failure in
> coral recruitment due to the loss of the structural complexity of the reefs.
> - Today, 29% of the coral areas in Colombia have been classified as areas
> in high need of restoration if they are to preserve the more than $ 421,000
> million dollars annually (2013 USD) in ecosystem services that coral reefs
> provide only to the Colombian Caribbean.
> - Although coral reef restoration activities in isolation cannot bring
> dead reefs back to life, when combined with proactive restoration methods
> (e.g. MPAs, disturbance control) they can certainly help speed up natural
> reef recovery.
> - National Natural Parks of Colombia (PNNC) and the Corporation for
> Sustainable Development of the Archipelago Department of San Andrés
> Providencia and Santa Catalina - CORALINA - have carried out since 2009
> small-scale pilot projects (<2000 fragments) for the restoration of coral
> reefs using the coral gardening concept in six protected areas with
> positive coral survival results in nursery (> 90%) and transplant (> 86%)
> stages.
> - Between 2017 and 2020, a large-scale participatory coral gardening
> project in the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina,
> the Reef for All project, generated a stock of 13,468 fragments of four
> hard coral species and outplanted 8,537 of these in more than 4,500 square
> meters of reef in the Archipelago. Preliminary analysis of the effect of
> the interventions carried out - massive coral transplantation and micro
> fragmentation - showed an increase in live coral coverage between 23% and
> 41% at the intervened sites, higher than control and reference sites.
> - The science of ecological restoration of coral reefs indicates that it
> is important to increase the scale of the restoration, both in the number
> of transplanted corals and in the intervened area and stakeholders
> involved. In this way, we can accelerate reef recovery, promote adaptive
> resilience to climate change, and reduce the costs of interventions.
> Seeking to protect the genetic diversity of coral populations in the
> intervened sites, coral nurseries can become genetic repositories where
> individuals are protected and away from the diseases that are currently
> affecting natural reefs. Nurseries could also become breeding sites once
> corals reach sexual maturity.
> - The replication and adaptation of the experience achieved in the REEF
> FOR ALL program and in other smaller-scale processes in the coral areas of
> Colombia, within the framework of the National Development Plan (PND 2010 -
> 2014) and the National Restoration Plan (PNR ) of the Ministry of
> Environment and Sustainable Development - MADS - will contribute to meeting
> the objectives of the National Government of seeking strategies and actions
> to turn Colombia into a sustainable bi-oceanic power by the year 2030
> (CONPES 3990), and to contribute to the planned goals of the UN in the
> Decade of Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) and Ocean Sciences for
> Sustainable Development (2021-2030).
>
> The How:
> - As members of the Society for Ecological Restoration and the Coral
> Restoration Consortium, we follow the international principles and
> standards for the practice of ecological restoration to increase the scale
> of coral reef restoration efforts in Colombia that lead to the conservation
> of their biodiversity and ecosystem services in Colombia.
> - Similarly, we follow published coral gardening and coral restoration
> genetics guidelines (e.g. for collection, genetic diversity, site
> selection, etc.) and benchmarks (e.g. survival and growth) to increase the
> effectiveness and evaluate the success of coral gardening efforts, and
> reduce/control/mitigate the risk underpinning these and any other actions.
> - We use science-based tested methods for coral propagation that allow the
> inclusion of over 20 hard coral species from the Caribbean and involve all
> relevant social actors (e.g. ONGs, researchers, diving professionals,
> fisher folks) currently working in coral reef restoration to streamline
> efforts under national guidelines to ensure sustainability, control, and
> compliance.
> - We concentrate on coral stock already growing in the more than six (6)
> coral gardening projects running in Colombia, five of them within MPAs.
>
> The What:
> - We identify and prioritize species for propagation (>20).
> - We identify and characterize coral reef areas (13) for restoration in
> the Colombian Caribbean and Pacific.
> - We develop implementation plans for the cultivation and restoration
> projects by public entities of the environmental sector (13) following
> previous experiences.
> - We set coral gardening parameters for the propagation of coral colonies.
> Our fragmentation and microfragmentation protocol allow us to collect only
> 10% of a donor colony if needed (targeting artificial reefs and piers found
> on most areas), use available stock, focused on fragments of opportunity
> (naturally fragmented). Finally, a collection of fragments from 10 colonies
> (genotypes) per species per site is estimated to be representative of more
> than 50% of the genetic diversity of each site.
> - We set a 18 months (re)fragmentation plan that allows fragment growth
> and the exponential propagation of the initial stock. Our model ensures
> that only 22,500 cm2 or 2.25 m2 of living coral tissue will be required per
> species per site to generate the initial culture stock at each site.
> - We grow 100.000 fragments from branching corals in underwater rope
> nurseries, using current national stock that is well over 50.000 from the
> three Acropora species. The other 900.000 fragments are from massive and
> encrusting coral species which will be propagated in fixed table nurseries
> and/or directly transplanted onto denuded coral heads (re-skinning).
> - At each of the 13 coral reef areas, we will build a team of 6 locals to
> run the coral gardening activities of this initiative. They will be trained
> on coral gardening techniques following our standardized professional
> training workshop program (similar to the one organized by rrreefs and that
> initiated this thread).
> - We establish strategic alliances with private and public actors to
> support coral gardening actions and other complementary activities.
> - From the strengthening of strategic alliances, guide documents will be
> produced to serve as a tool for decision-making and planning of maintenance
> actions and regular monitoring of the cultivated stock (ie survival and
> growth) in order to identify and manage threats in a timely manner, and
> that it informs and assists in the fulfillment of the goals.
> - Similarly and in accordance with what has been previously described, we
> continue promoting collective actions to reduce anthropogenic pressures
> (e.g. local pollution, overfishing, anchoring) in coral areas and that also
> strengthen the management and sustainable use of the ecosystem.
> - We set plans for managing associated local risks (i.e. predators,
> diseases, cash flow shortages, rapid threat response) as implemented in
> other regions affected by coral diseases (Belize, Puerto Rico), storms
> (Seychelles), or funding limitations (Fiji, Colombia).
> - We set an advisory team to design the roadmap for the second phase of
> the project: coral outplanting.
>
> I hope this described the One Million Coral project that Dra Nohora Galvis
> mentioned and provides requested feedback.
>
> Some important notes I leave you with:
> - Under a hurricane cat 5 there is no above or underwater structure that
> will hold strong. Does that mean we should not be building structures with
> set specific goals (e.g. houses, shelters, artificial reefs, nurseries)
> then at hurricane-prone areas?
> - INVEMAR, the Marine and Coastal Research Institute from Colombia,
> already showed that coral reefs in Providencia island were not severely
> affected by hurricane Iota and Eta. Mangroves and the whole land green
> cover was.
> -  Although the dredging operations at Providencia island channel pose a
> high risk to coral reefs, to date there is no scientific evidence yet to
> suggest a negative impact on coral reef sites.
> - One that has been discussed here so many times: climate change is
> undoubtedly the most important threat coral reefs face, but we cannot sit
> and wait while we work on it. I believe, there are a lot of people in the
> world to divide efforts and work simultaneously on controlling threats and
> promoting natural reef recovery.
>
> Thanks and apologies for the long email.
>
> Some used references:
> - Amar KOO, Rinkevich B (2007) A floating mid-water coral nursery as
> larval dispersion hub: Testing an idea. Mar Biol 151:713–718
> - Baums IB et al. (2019) Considerations for maximizing the adaptive
> potential of restored coral populations in the western Atlantic. Ecol Appl
> 29:1–23
> - Bayraktarov E et al. (2020) Coral reef restoration efforts in Latin
> American countries and territories Keshavmurthy, S, editor. PLOS ONE
> 15:e0228477
> - Franke-Ante R et al. (2014) Aportes a la consolidación de un proceso
> regional para la conservación de arrecifes coralinos: ensayos para la
> estandarización de metodologías para el repoblamiento de especies
> amenazadas del género Acropora en tres Parques Nacionales Naturales del
> Caribe. Biota Colombiana 15:114–131
> - Gnecco M, Maya MF, Montoya-Maya PH (2019) Producto 1: Trasplante de
> colonias de Acropora cervicornis y A. palmata en áreas priorizadas, ensayo
> de microfragmentación y caracterización ecológica en San Andrés y
> Providencia - Reserva de Biosfera Seaflower. Documento Técnico. Convenio de
> Cooperación No. 6005573. Cali, Colombia. 33p.
> - INVEMAR (2016) Informe del estado de los ambientes y recursos marinos y
> costeros en Colombia: Año 2015. Ser. Publicaciones Periódicas No. 3 St.
> Marta
> - Montoya Maya PH et al. (2016) Large-scale coral reef restoration could
> assist natural recovery in Seychelles, Indian Ocean. Nature Conservation
> 16:1–17
> - Prato JA, CN (RA) Reyna JA (2015) Aproximación a la Valoración Económica
> de la Zona Marina y Costera del Caribe Colombiano. Secretaría Ejecutiva de
> la Comisión Colombiana del Océano, Bogotá
> - Shearer TL et al. (2009) Restoration of coral populations in light of
> genetic diversity estimates. Coral Reefs 28:727–733
>
>
> *Phanor H Montoya-Maya, Ph.D.*Director Corales de Paz
> Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner #0514
> Research Associate CEMARIN
>
> Tel: +57 313 652 1198
> Email: phmontoya at coralesdepaz.org, phmontoyamaya at gmail.com
> Organisation: www.coralesdepaz.org
> LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/phmontoyamaya/
> <https://www.linkedin.com/in/phmontoyamaya/>
>

>
>
>
>
>
> Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2021 09:59:14 -0600
> From: H?ctor Reyes Bonilla <hreyes at uabcs.mx>
> To: Belize TREC <trec at hotmail.com>
> Cc: "coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov" <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Coral regeneration projects
> Message-ID:
>         <CADHKcUurODA8YEghpDZy=
> cLz4rbCw238b6Ai+XRpQOUWmRz0hg at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
> saludos a todos.
>
> let me share an extra observation based on our experience in mexico, that
> supports the idea that to break corals for "restoration" is a (probaby
> very) bad idea.
>
> reproduction in corals is based on colony size, not age. we have observed
> that tagged colonies of pocillopora with a diameter about 12-15 cm are
> sexually active in summer-fall, but if the colony suffer some damage
> (hurricanes, divers, anchors), quickly "abort" the gametes, probably
> because the energy expense become too high for a smaller number of polyps.
> according to the literature, this is not exclusive of this genus but
> probably a pattern in scleractinians.
>
> in short, if relatively small colonies of branching corals (and probably of
> massive corals too) are used as "donors" because they are abundant and stop
> reproducing at least for (let?s say) one year, it is quite possible that
> the restoration project may win one branch, but lose several (who knows how
> many) natural recruits at the same time. if we consider that mortality is
> stable in time, a fast calculation shows that instead of winning, the
> "restoration project" may be decreasing the capability of the population to
> survive in the long term.
>
> why not use naturally produced fragments ("corals of opportunity") instead?
>
> Hector Reyes
>
> El vie, 2 jul 2021 a las 2:40, Belize TREC via Coral-List (<
> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>) escribi?:
>
> > To the best of my knowledge a large review of the subject has shown only
> > about 1% of such coral restoration projects have increased coral after 5
> > years. Prove the science first before large restoration projects are
> > implemented. There is money to be made by offering recreational SCUBA
> > divers the chance to feel they have helped coral reefs when there is
> very,
> > very limited evidence this is true. Threatening LIBAL suits is
> intimidation.
> > Ken Mattes
>
> Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2021 21:54:16 -1000
> From: Nicole Crane <nicrane at cabrillo.edu>
> To: H?ctor Reyes Bonilla <hreyes at uabcs.mx>
> Cc: "coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov" <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>,
>         Belize TREC <trec at hotmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Coral regeneration projects
> Message-ID:
>         <CAAC1_xK0h27J+aym6-wZiMk2cmFu0JP-qs9WaK7VM=
> jo3W3E_w at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
> Dear all,
> Thank you Hector for these thoughts. I would like to echo concerns about
> methods for fragging coral.  I hear organizations, environmental consulting
> firms, and even lawyers and expert witnesses tout the efficacy of large
> scale coral restoration projects with little good science to back that up,
> and very little attention paid to the potential negative impacts.  I very
> much understand and sympathize with the arguments that given the rate of
> decline of reefs, and the need to restore damaged ones, some coral is
> better than none and fragging, in any way, can help achieve that.  However
> I am concerned by some of these efforts, and the lack of attention to good
> science that may better guide them.  In addition, I see a growing (and
> alarming) belief that damaged reefs are overall not so concerning anymore
> because a restoration project can bring them back.  This is obviously not
> the case, and though coral biologists might recognize this problem, lay
> people, lawyers, developers etc. may seize that idea to make poorn
> arguments and even fund restoration projects that are ill conceived.
> best
> Nicole
>
>
> Nicole L. Crane
> Faculty, Cabrillo College
> Natural and Applied Sciences
> www.cabrillo.edu/~ncrane
>
>
> Senior Conservation Scientist, Project co-lead
> One People One Reef
> onepeopleonereef.org
>
>


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