Acropora cervicornis is a threatened coral species considered one of the most important Caribbean reef-building corals. Due to its critical status and ecological importance, many restoration efforts focus on its population recovery. Outplanting nursery-reared corals is a strategy to restore populations, but there is an urgent need to measure variations in demographic performance between small-scale spatial variations, in order to enhance site selection for restoration activities. Many restoration efforts evaluate coral demography between time and inter-sites, but less is known about the implications of intra-site spatial variation. In this study, nursery-reared fragments of A. cervicornis were outplanted to the reef substrate to assess demographic performance in small-scale spatial variations. We measured survival, growth, productivity, branch production, size, height, and coral cover for a period of 2 years. At the end of the study, 85% of the corals survived. A. cervicornis outplants showed mean growth rates intra-site variations ranging from 40.3 ± 44.6 (± SD) cm/year to  10.5 ± 17.0 (± SD) cm/year. Mean productivity rates ranged from 1.76 ± 1.89 (± SD) cm/year to 0.71 ± 0.95 (± SD) cm/year. Coral growth decreased during the second year post-outplanting, with 59.5 % of outplants showing negative growth. Such a reduction could be associated with predation by the fireworm Hermodice carunculata. Despite this negative effect, there has been a significant shift in coral size and height of the restored populations towards large colonies. After two years of restoration activities, mean colony size and height increased by 58.1% and 27.4% respectively. However, coral cover dropped by 2.9%. We conclude that A. cervicornis demographic success differs significantly between time and intra-site spatial variations.

Primary Presenter: Patria Aponte-Marcano, Ana G. Mendez University (patriaap@gmail.com)

Authors:

Patria Aponte-Marcano, Sociedad Ambiente Marino  (patriaaponte@sampr.org)

Alex Mercado-Molina, Sociedad Ambiente Marino  (alexmercado@sampr.org)

Samuel Suleimán-Ramos, Sociedad Ambiente Marino  (samuelsuleiman@sampr.org)