Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), Bremen, Germany.
Faculty of Biology & Chemistry (FB2), University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
PLoS One. 2021 May 3;16(5):e0249966. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0249966. eCollection 2021.
Coral transplantation has been used in reef restoration for several decades, but information on the type of projects, their scope, scale, and success is mostly limited to published scientific studies and technical reports. Many practitioners do not have the capacity to share their progress in peer-reviewed literature, yet likely have a wealth of information to share on how to improve the efficiency of transplantation efforts. In order to incorporate non-published data on coral transplantation projects and gain an overview of the general features of these projects, we conducted an initial systematic online survey of projects run by various practitioners. Surveyed projects (n = 50) covered most of the tropical belt and ranged in size from a few hundred transplanted corals to >5000 transplants. The most frequent source of coral fragments were corals already broken from some previous impact ("corals of opportunity"; 58% of projects), followed by fragments stored in different types of aquaculture systems (42% of projects). The use of sexual reproduction was very limited. Fast-growing, branching corals were used in 96% of projects, being by far the most common transplanted growth form. About half of the projects mentioned undertaking maintenance of the transplantation plots. The majority of projects undertook subsequent monitoring (80%), yet the available data indicates that duration of monitoring efforts was not adequate to evaluate long-term success. The findings underline that while some general principles for successful coral restoration projects are reasonably well established, others need to be mainstreamed better in order to improve the effectiveness of coral transplantation for reef restoration. This relates in particular to sustainable funding, adequate site assessment, and long-term monitoring using established protocols. Additional information is needed to better understand and address potential challenges with regards to the sourcing of transplants and use of slow-growing species. A better integration of practitioners is necessary to improve the understanding of coral transplantation effectiveness. The results underline a need to develop and use monitoring protocols that allow gauging and comparing the effectiveness of coral transplantation among various projects, as well as for accessible platform(s) to allow the exchange of experiences made in different projects. Regular surveys of restoration projects are recommended to collate and share information among practitioners. We provide a number of recommendations for items to include in future surveys.
珊瑚移植在珊瑚礁修复中已经使用了几十年，但有关项目类型、范围、规模和成功率的信息大多仅限于已发表的科学研究和技术报告。许多从业者没有能力在同行评议的文献中分享他们的进展，但他们可能有大量关于如何提高移植效率的信息可以分享。为了纳入珊瑚移植项目的未发表数据，并全面了解这些项目的一般特征，我们对各种从业者开展的项目进行了初步的系统在线调查。调查项目（n=50）涵盖了热带带的大部分地区，移植珊瑚的数量从几百株到超过 5000 株不等。珊瑚碎片的最常见来源是之前因某种原因受损的珊瑚（58%的项目），其次是储存在不同类型水产养殖系统中的碎片（42%的项目）。有性繁殖的应用非常有限。快速生长的分枝珊瑚在 96%的项目中被使用，是迄今为止最常见的移植生长形式。大约一半的项目提到了对移植区进行维护。大多数项目都进行了后续监测（80%），但现有数据表明，监测工作的持续时间不足以评估长期成功。调查结果强调，虽然一些成功的珊瑚修复项目的一般原则已经得到了很好的确立，但为了提高珊瑚移植在珊瑚礁修复中的有效性，其他原则需要更好地纳入主流。这特别涉及到可持续的资金、充分的选址评估以及使用既定方案进行长期监测。需要更多的信息来更好地了解和解决有关移植来源和使用生长缓慢的物种的潜在挑战。需要更好地整合从业者，以提高对珊瑚移植效果的理解。调查结果强调需要制定和使用监测方案，以便在不同项目之间衡量和比较珊瑚移植的效果，以及开发可访问的平台来交流不同项目中的经验。建议定期对修复项目进行调查，以便在从业者之间收集和分享信息。我们为未来的调查提供了一些包含内容的建议。
