Larval Propagation
Outplanting sexually propagated corals is a recent technique aimed at increasing coral cover on degraded reefs, while preserving genetic variation within recipient populations. While this approach is increasingly successful, several challenges currently prevent its application on large scales. That is foremost due to the high mortality rates of sexually reared recruits after they are outplanted (i.e., typically less than 5% of cultured recruits survive passed the age of one year). Research on processes affecting coral recruits after outplanting is this WG’s top priority. Additional objectives are further integrated to help up-scale larval propagation efforts. The Coral Restoration Consortium steering committee and WG members have defined the following priorities for the group:
- Improve post-settlement survival of outplanted sexual recruits
- Develop a coordinated breeding program
- Expand the number of species and locations that are included in sexual coral breeding programs
- Maximize genotypic diversity of sexually reared coral recruits
- Strengthen the use of ex situ nurseries
- Develop new technologies to enable mass rearing and settlement of coral larvae as well as efficient outplanting to increase the cost-effectiveness of this approach (once we have tackled the post-settlement challenge)
- Connect with other WG within the CRC
What We’re Working On
Core working group team members are currently aligning their research on post-settlement survival and developing more specific research questions and targeted experiments. This working group has developed the following resources for other larval propagation restoration practitioners:
- Coral Spawning Predictions Mexico 2021
- Coral Spawning Predictions Southern Caribbean 2021
- Coral Spawning Predictions Southern Caribbean 2021
- Coral spawning predictions Koh Tao Thailand 2021
- Coral Spawning Research & Larval Propagation Webinar
- Spawning of the Grooved Brain Coral Diploria labyrinthiformis Webinar
- Coral Spawning Predictions Southern Caribbean 2020
- Coral spawning predictions The Bahamas 2020
- Coral spawning predictions South Eleuthera 2020
- Coral Spawning Predictions Puerto Morelos 2020
- CSFS Diploria labyrinthiformis_June_2020
- Coral_spawning_data_TEMPLATE_2020
- Jordan 2018 Patterns in Caribbean Coral Spawning
- Spawning Monitoring Guidelines
- Coral_spawning_data_TEMPLATE
Call Schedule
Stakeholder update calls are scheduled as needed. To receive updates about what the group is working on, or notifications about when the next update call is scheduled, join the Larval Propagation working group email list!