The drastic decline in coral coverage has stimulated an interest in reef restoration, and various iterations of coral nurseries have been used to augment restoration strategies. Here we examine the growth of two species of Hawaiian Montipora that were maintained in mesocosms under either ambient or warmed annual bleaching conditions for two consecutive years prior to outplanting to determine whether preconditioning aided coral restoration efforts. Using coral trees to create a nearby ocean nursery, we examined whether: (1) previous ex situ mesocosm growth would mirror in situ coral tree nursery growth; and (2) thermal ex situ stress-hardening would predict future success during natural warming events in situ for corals moved from tanks to trees. For Montipora capitata, we found that variation in growth was explained primarily by genotype; growth rates in the mesocosms were similar to those in situ, irrespective of preconditioning. Variation in M. flabellata growth, however, was explained by both genotype and culture method such that an individual M. flabellata colony that grew well in the tanks did not necessarily perform as well on the coral trees. For both species, previous exposure to elevated temperatures in the mesocosms provided no benefit to either growth or survival during a warming event in the coral tree nursery compared to those grown in ambient temperatures. Overall, M. capitata performed better in the tree nursery with higher net growth, lower mortality, and was subject to less predation than M. flabellata. Our results show little benefit of the additional cost and time of stress-hardening these corals prior to outplanting because it is unlikely to aid resilience to future warming events. These results also suggest that selecting corals for restoration based on long-term genotype growth performance may be more effective for optimal outcomes but should be weighed against other factors, such as coral morphology, in situ nursery method, location, and other characteristics.

Growth and survival among Hawaiian corals outplanted from tanks to an ocean nursery are driven by individual genotype and species differences rather than preconditioning to thermal stress

Ecosystem-based management on coral reefs has historically focussed on biodiversity conservation through the establishment of marine reserves, but it is increasingly recognised that a subset of species can be key to the maintenance of ecosystem processes and functioning. Specific provisions for these key taxa are essential to biodiversity conservation and resilience-based adaptive management. While a wealth of literature addresses ecosystem functioning on coral reefs, available information covers only a subset of specific taxa, ecological processes and environmental

Chapter 5 Priority Species to Support the Functional Integrity of Coral Reefs

The biodiversity of coral reef habitats is rapidly declining due to the effects of anthropogenic climate change, prompting the use of active restoration as a mitigation strategy. Sexual propagation can maintain or enhance genetic diversity in restoration of these ecosystems, but these approaches suffer from a range of inefficiencies in rearing and husbandry. Algal overgrowth of juveniles is a major bottleneck in the production of sexually propagated corals that may be alleviated by co-culture with herbivores. We reared juvenile Montipora capitata alongside juvenile native Hawaiian collector urchins, Tripneustes gratilla, for 15 weeks and documented significant ecological benefits of co-culture. Urchin treatments significantly increased the survivorship of coral aggregates (14%) and individual settlers (24%). We also documented a significant increase in coral growth in the presence of urchins. These results demonstrate the utility of microherbivory in promoting coral growth and survivorship in ex situ conditions, providing valuable insight for restoration pipelines of native Hawaiian coral species. 

Enhancing survivorship and growth of juvenile Montipora capitata using the Hawaiian collector urchin Tripneustes gratilla


Coral reef restoration activities have increased globally over recent decades in response to the ongoing decline in condition of the worlds' reefs.
Current practices of coral reef restoration are now undertaken in most of the tropical regions of the world. However, the scale of individual projects remains small in the context of the scale of threats to reefs.
An increasing number of studies have considered the barriers to scaling up projects, but few of these have considered the critical role that participating organizations play in influencing and determining the scale that projects can achieve. An institutional analysis is undertaken here to elucidate these barriers.
The primary conclusion from this analysis is that the present mix of organizations undertaking reef restoration activities will likely have to alter as at‐scale approaches are introduced.
What this new mix of organizations will look like will be location‐specific and dependent upon for example health and safety, and environmental approvals requirements, and the requirements for funding and operating infrastructure.


How the incentives of participating organizations influence the current scales of coral reef restoration activities

It is important to consider flow rate explicitly in coral growth and bleaching studies across multiple species with differing life histories to guide coral conservation, management and captive culture. We quantified growth rates and coral bleaching responses to thermal stress (approx. 18 DHW) in flow-through aquaria with various current velocities to test whether flow conditions alter experimental outcomes. Across natural flow rates (< 1 to over 50 cm/sec), Montipora capitata, Pocillopora acuta, and Pocillopora meandrina showed increased growth and bleaching recovery at intermediate flow rates. Growth rates for all species increased from no flow to intermediate (50–100 turnovers-per-hour, ~ 10–30 cm/s), but then decreased at highest flow (> 190 tph, > 50 cm/s) although this trend was not significant for P. meandrina. The flow treatment with highest recovery from temperature stress differed across species, ranging from 4 tph in the flow-loving P. meandrina to 210 tph in the lagoonal M. capitata, indicating that natural flow regime alone is not predictive. Fragments from the same individual (e.g., P. acuta colony 8) held under identical thermal conditions continue bleaching and die under one flow regime (4 tph), whereas they recover from bleaching (30 tph) or grow fastest (105 tph) under different flow treatments. Flow is rarely reported in the literature, but uncontrolled flow effects may help to explain some of the variation in coral bleaching results reported across the literature. Significant differences among individual colonies, and colony-by-flow interactions, preclude generalizations beyond that flow rates can alter the outcome of both coral growth and bleaching experiments.

Flow rates alter the outcome of coral bleaching and growth experiments

The first Hawai‘i workshop for coral restoration & nurseries

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The first Hawai‘i workshop for coral restoration & nurseries