Pocillopora spp. growth analysis on restoration structures in an Eastern Tropical Pacific upwelling area

PeerJ

article

Lisa Combillet¹  Sònia Fabregat-Malé²  Sebastián Mena³  José Andrés Marín-Moraga⁴  Monica Gutierrez⁵  Juan José Alvarado³ 

[1] Master Sciences pour l’Environnement, parcours Gestion de l’environnement et écologie Littorale, Université de La Rochelle;Posgrado en Biología, Sistema de Estudios de Posgrado, Universidad de Costa Rica;Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica;Raising Coral Costa Rica;Sostenibilidad;Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Ecología Tropical ,(CIBET) ,(Previously Museo de Zoología), Universidad de Costa Rica;Centro de Investigación en Ciencias del Mar y Limnología ,(CIMAR), Universidad de Costa Rica

关键词: Branching coral;    Fragmentation;    Growth rates;    Artificial structure;    Coral gardening;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.13248

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Coral reefs in Culebra Bay (North Pacific of Costa Rica) are threatened by multiple anthropogenic disturbances including global warming, overfishing, eutrophication, and invasive species outbreaks. It is possible to assist their recovery by implementing ecological restoration techniques. This study used artificial hexagonal steel structures, called “spiders” to compare growth of Pocillopora spp. coral fragments of different sizes. Three initial fragment class sizes were used: 2, 5 and 8 cm, with each class size having 42 initial fragments. Changes in fragment length, width and area were measured monthly from January to December 2020. Results showed an overall survivorship of 70.21%, and no significant differences in survivorship and linear growth rate were detected between class sizes. The linear growth rates are 4.49 ± 1.19 cm year−1, 5.35 ± 1.48 cm year−1 and 3.25 ± 2.22 cm year−1 for the 2, 5 and 8 cm initial class sizes, respectively. Our results do not show significant differences in growth rates between the different initial fragment sizes. However, since small fragments (2 cm) present higher mortality during the first month, we recommend using larger fragments. In addition, coral fragments grew 48% more during the non-upwelling season, which may suggest that it might be more effective and safer to start the restoration efforts during this period.

【 授权许可】

CC BY