Logo image
Back
Selecting coral species for reef restoration
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Selecting coral species for reef restoration

Joshua S. Madin, Michael McWilliam, Kate Quigley, Line K. Bay, David Bellwood, Christopher Doropoulos, Leanne Fernandes, Peter Harrison, Andrew S. Hoey, Peter J. Mumby, …
The Journal of applied ecology, Vol.60(8), pp.1537-1544
08/2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14447
pdf
Selecting coral species for reef restoration3.22 MBDownloadView
Published (Version of record)CC BY-NC V4.0,  Open Access
url
Selecting coral species for reef restorationView
Published (Version of record)CC BY-NC V4.0,  Open

Related links

Metrics

53 File views/ downloads
85 Record Views
31 Times Cited - Web of Science

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#13 Climate Action
#14 Life Below Water

Source: InCites

Abstract

ecosystem services hedging marginal returns phenotypic traits reef corals restoration species selection
Humans have long sought to restore species but little attention has been directed at how to best select a subset of foundation species for maintaining rich assemblages that support ecosystems, like coral reefs and rainforests, which are increasingly threatened by environmental change. We propose a two-part hedging approach that selects optimized sets of species for restoration. The first part acknowledges that biodiversity supports ecosystem functions and services, and so it ensures precaution against loss by allocating an even spread of phenotypic traits. The second part maximizes species and ecosystem persistence by weighting species based on characteristics that are known to improve ecological persistence—for example abundance, species range and tolerance to environmental change. Using existing phenotypic-trait and ecological data for reef building corals, we identified sets of ecologically persistent species by examining marginal returns in occupancy of phenotypic trait space. We compared optimal sets of species with those from the world's southern-most coral reef, which naturally harbours low coral diversity, to show these occupy much of the trait space. Comparison with an existing coral restoration program indicated that current corals used for restoration only cover part of the desired trait space and programs may be improved by including species with different traits. Synthesis and applications. While there are many possible criteria for selecting species for restoration, the approach proposed here addresses the need to insure against unpredictable losses of ecosystem services by focusing on a wide range of phenotypic traits and ecological characteristics. Furthermore, the flexibility of the approach enables the functional goals of restoration to vary depending on environmental context, stakeholder values, and the spatial and temporal scales at which meaningful impacts can be achieved.

Details

Logo image