A Multi-trait Approach To Evaluate Success In Coral Restoration Efforts On The Great Barrier Reef
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2024
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Accelerating reef health declines from local and global stressors have catalysed widespread interest in coral reef restoration practices as an active management tool to boost coral reef recovery and safeguard ecosystem services. Interventions have focussed on coral and/or reef rehabilitation to repopulate endangered coral species and recover coral cover via in-water coral nursery propagation and out-planting practices. While such practices have been established in regions like the Caribbean, Indo-Pacific, and the Red Sea for the past two decades, they were only recently considered for Australian reefs in response to consecutive coral bleaching events in 2016–17.
Evaluation of restoration “success” has traditionally centred on metrics of coral growth and survival, which are fundamental for determining the return-on-effort of interventions. However, these metrics offer limited insight into broader ecosystem service values and reef performance. As a result, biological and ecological success metrics are often overlooked in restoration studies, leading to a gap in understanding the impact of restoration activities on reef performance, functioning, associated services, and resilience.
To address this gap, my thesis integrated into ongoing Great Barrier Reef (GBR) restoration initiatives, namely the Coral Nurture Program (CNP) and the Mars Assisted Reef Restoration System (MARRS). In the first “multi-trait assessment” of coral nursery propagation success, I demonstrated how coral nurseries are highly effective at rapidly increasing coral biomass but without potentially impacting traits indicative of essential ecosystem services. My approach was critical in revealing the biological machinery (and thus functional traits) supporting fast-tracked coral growth through nursery propagation. I subsequently demonstrated that the same nursery corals displayed similar thermal tolerance to their wild donor colonies; as such, bleaching susceptibility was not impacted during nursery propagation despite enhanced energetic investment previously observed into metabolism and growth. In considering metrics related to traits indicative of an essential ecosystem service, such as wave attenuation, I subsequently demonstrated that MARRS resulted in remarkably enhanced reef accretion in a reef with an otherwise poor recovery trajectory. Moreover, by integrating other metrics related to skeletal properties, I confirmed that species-specific trade-offs in functional traits could occur when selecting different coral species in restoration activities.
Overall, my research advances the understanding of coral restoration success by proposing a multi-trait measurement approach that considers a broader range of coral traits beyond growth and survival. This approach provides more meaningful insights into restoration outcomes and contributes to the effective management of coral reefs worldwide.
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