Ruben van Hooidonk

2016

2017

Purpose/need –Out-planting is the very last part of the significant investment in growing corals in nurseries. This last step carries a low cost relative to nursery maintenance but is the most important step for achieving nursery goals. The overarching goal of the Florida nurseries is to maximize the survivorship of out-planted corals. Only corals that survive can aid impacted reefs to recover, and can contribute to the replenishment and ongoing persistence of A. cervicornis in Florida reef habitats. Consequently, collaborators throughout Florida have developed best practices for Acropora restoration. In 2011, those collaborations culminated in the Acropora RESTORATION GUIDE: Best practices for propagation and population enhancement (published by TNC). There is a paragraph within the GUIDE that describes outplanting strategies and site selection. All nursery operators now agree that climate change is a critically important required additional site selection consideration during outplanting. Project objectives: 1. Collaboratively (with nursery operators and managers) develop a new scheme for identifying and ranking candidate out-planting sites based on compilation of spatially explicit data on at least these variables: depth, substrate type, proximity to seagrass beds, distance to outfall pipes, ecological resilience potential, and projections of ocean acidification and coral bleaching conditions. 2. Produce draft maps of the entire Florida Reef Tract that color-grade favorability of reef habitat for outplanting from very poor to very good. 3. Share results from 2 with nursery operators and managers and then produce final maps color-grading favorability for outplanting in the FRT based on end-user feedback (i.e., incorporation of assessments of outplanting and subsequent monitoring feasibility and cost-effectiveness). 4. Develop guidance for the use of downscaled climate model projections of coral bleaching conditions in assessing favorability of candidate reef sites for outplanting corals grown in nurseries. Other affiliated projects – This project builds on the FY15 CRCP-funded project led by J. Maynard, entitled: Vulnerability assessment frameworks for Florida that combine maps of historic and projected future exposure to disturbances with resilience assessments. This project will yield information on spatial variation in ecological resilience potential in the FRT; a key data layer that will be included among those when meeting this project’s objectives 1-3. Methods – Collaborative development of the scheme for identifying and ranking candidate out-planting sites (obj. 1) will involve meetings and a workshop aimed at consensus generation for the data layers to be included. Producing draft maps is an extensive desktop-based analysis involving compilation of existing as well as generation of new information layers (obj. 2). Finalizing the draft maps will involve another workshop with the project partners. The planned guidance document (obj. 4; ~10-page PDF) will ensure people operating nurseries outside Florida can employ or adapt the process used to meet objectives 1-3 (see Methods section for greater detail).Project partners – This highly collaborative project will be inclusive of operators and staff of all of the 7 major Florida nurseries, including those managed by Univ. of Miami, NOVA, TNC, and MOTE, and will involve workshops and meetings that include FFWCC, FL DEP, and FKNMS staff.

The two primary outputs are: 1. Draft and final maps that color-grade out-planting favorability based on at least these information layers: depth, substrate type, proximity to seagrass beds, distance to outfall pipes, ecological resilience potential, and projections of ocean acidification and coral bleaching conditions. 2. A guidance document describing the use of downscaled climate model projections of coral bleaching conditions in assessing favorability of candidate reef sites for out-planting corals grown in nurseries. A range of outcomes are expected as a consequence of the methods/process planned to meet the project’s four objectives and develop the associated 2 primary outputs. Specific outcomes include:1. Greater awareness among nursery operators of downscaled climate model projections recently released for the Florida Reef Tract.2. Increased understanding among nursery operators and managers in Florida of how to account for projected spatial variation in climate change impacts when selecting candidate out-planting sites. 3. Increased understanding of where to establish coral nursery sites to maximize persistence likelihood under climate change. 4. Increased understanding of where to source corals from such that nursery corals include a range of resilient genotypes and phenotypes. 5. Increased survivorship of coral fragments out-planted from coral nurseries. 6. Increased resilience and persistence of the ESA-threatened coral species Acropora cervicornis. 7. Informed discussions of issues related to features of current permitting guidelines that may restrict nursery operators from out-planting A. cervicornis fragments to the sites project outputs suggest are most favorable. 8. Increased understanding worldwide of how to use downscaled climate model projections within composite indices enabling identification and ranking of candidate out-planting sites from most to least favorable. All of the expected outcomes increase the capacity to make management and conservation decisions in Florida related to the development and maintenance of nurseries and the out-planting of nursery-grown corals.

• Florida

Climate Change

Closed

Completed

https://www.coris.noaa.gov/search/rest/find/document?searchText=projectNumber%3A31111%20OR%20projectTitle%3A"Climate%20and%20resilience-based%20decision-support%20tools%20to%20maximize%20coral%20transplant%20survivorship%20and%20reef%20recovery%20in%20Florida"&start=1&max=10&f=searchPage