Scientists from the Central Caribbean Marine Institute (CCMI) and the University of Miami recently published an article in the scientific journal Endangered Species Research, describing the results of a study conducted in the Cayman Islands that focuses on optimizing the productivity of staghorn coral in artificial coral nurseries.

Coral nurseries are a method of re-establishing threatened populations of staghorn and other coral species. To create a nursery, live coral samples are collected from the wild donor colonies then cut into smaller fragments and attached to underwater lines and PVC “trees”. Once the fragments grow large enough, they can be re-fragmented to increase the number of colonies in the nursery or outplanted to the wild.

CCMI and the Department of Environment (DoE) established the first coral nursery in the Cayman Islands, located on Little Cayman. The published study was conducted in 2013 during the initial propagation stage at the Little Cayman nursery in an effort to determine the amount of coral that may be clipped from a nursery-reared colony for propagation purposes without causing mortality or decreasing growth of the nursery-reared donor colony.

“We anticipate that our observations will have practical applications for maximizing propagation of staghorn coral within nurseries throughout the wider Caribbean,” said Kathryn Lohr, lead author of the article and former CCMI Conservation Scientist who is now pursuing her doctorate at the University of Florida with a focus on coral restoration.

The study found that up to 75% of a nursery-reared donor coral may be clipped to create new fragments without negatively affecting the colony’s survivorship, growth, or rate of addition of new branches. However, fragmentation can increase a parent colony’s susceptibility to stressors such as storms and disease outbreaks. To avoid this problem, nursery best practices include avoiding fragmentation during hurricane season (June through November).

The researchers hope that their study may be used to plan nursery development and expansion throughout the Caribbean in an effort to facilitate the restoration and conservation efforts for the staghorn coral. However, they caution that similar strategies may not be appropriate for coral species less adapted to natural fragmentation.

“Preservation is key,” Dr. Carrie Manfrino, President and Research Director of CCMI, said. “While coral nurseries are a viable solution, we should expand our efforts to minimise negative impacts on wild populations.”

The Little Cayman coral nursery project is funded in part by the Darwin Initiative, Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, and Cayman Consolidated Water.
The Central Caribbean Marine Institute is a Cayman Islands non profit organization whose mission is to protect coral reefs for the future by strengthening our understanding of what contributes to resilience and by reinforcing discoveries that offer hope to restore the balance of healthy coral reefs. We engage children and communities in active coral reef conservation as a part of our Science and Society initiative. Public and private contributions support our work.
Links:
http://www.int-res.com/articles/esr2015/27/n027p243.pdf