Coral reef restoration efforts in Latin American countries and territories.
Coral reefs worldwide are degrading due to climate change, overfishing, pollution, coastal development, coral bleaching, and diseases. In areas where the natural recovery of an ecosystem is negligible or protection through management interventions insufficient, active restoration becomes critical. T...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2020-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228477 |
| _version_ | 1819147466463772672 |
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| author | Elisa Bayraktarov Anastazia T Banaszak Phanor Montoya Maya Joanie Kleypas Jesús E Arias-González Macarena Blanco Johanna Calle-Triviño Nufar Charuvi Camilo Cortés-Useche Victor Galván Miguel A García Salgado Mariana Gnecco Sergio D Guendulain-García Edwin A Hernández Delgado José A Marín Moraga María Fernanda Maya Sandra Mendoza Quiroz Samantha Mercado Cervantes Megan Morikawa Gabriela Nava Valeria Pizarro Rita I Sellares-Blasco Samuel E Suleimán Ramos Tatiana Villalobos Cubero María F Villalpando Sarah Frías-Torres |
| author_facet | Elisa Bayraktarov Anastazia T Banaszak Phanor Montoya Maya Joanie Kleypas Jesús E Arias-González Macarena Blanco Johanna Calle-Triviño Nufar Charuvi Camilo Cortés-Useche Victor Galván Miguel A García Salgado Mariana Gnecco Sergio D Guendulain-García Edwin A Hernández Delgado José A Marín Moraga María Fernanda Maya Sandra Mendoza Quiroz Samantha Mercado Cervantes Megan Morikawa Gabriela Nava Valeria Pizarro Rita I Sellares-Blasco Samuel E Suleimán Ramos Tatiana Villalobos Cubero María F Villalpando Sarah Frías-Torres |
| author_sort | Elisa Bayraktarov |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Coral reefs worldwide are degrading due to climate change, overfishing, pollution, coastal development, coral bleaching, and diseases. In areas where the natural recovery of an ecosystem is negligible or protection through management interventions insufficient, active restoration becomes critical. The Reef Futures symposium in 2018 brought together over 400 reef restoration experts, businesses, and civil organizations, and galvanized them to save coral reefs through restoration or identify alternative solutions. The symposium highlighted that solutions and discoveries from long-term and ongoing coral reef restoration projects in Spanish-speaking countries in the Caribbean and Eastern Tropical Pacific were not well known internationally. Therefore, a meeting of scientists and practitioners working in these locations was held to compile the data on the extent of coral reef restoration efforts, advances and challenges. Here, we present unpublished data from 12 coral reef restoration case studies from five Latin American countries, describe their motivations and techniques used, and provide estimates on total annual project cost per unit area of reef intervened, spatial extent as well as project duration. We found that most projects used direct transplantation, the coral gardening method, micro-fragmentation or larval propagation, and aimed to optimize or scale-up restoration approaches (51%) or provide alternative, sustainable livelihood opportunities (15%) followed by promoting coral reef conservation stewardship and re-establishing a self-sustaining, functioning reef ecosystems (both 13%). Reasons for restoring coral reefs were mainly biotic and experimental (both 42%), followed by idealistic and pragmatic motivations (both 8%). The median annual total cost from all projects was $93,000 USD (range: $10,000 USD-$331,802 USD) (2018 dollars) and intervened a median spatial area of 1 ha (range: 0.06 ha-8.39 ha). The median project duration was 3 years; however, projects have lasted up to 17 years. Project feasibility was high with a median of 0.7 (range: 0.5-0.8). This study closes the knowledge gap between academia and practitioners and overcomes the language barrier by providing the first comprehensive compilation of data from ongoing coral reef restoration efforts in Latin America. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T13:30:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-297e6a56a12f46119225fc1b745f7d52 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T13:30:16Z |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-297e6a56a12f46119225fc1b745f7d522022-12-21T18:24:12ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032020-01-01158e022847710.1371/journal.pone.0228477Coral reef restoration efforts in Latin American countries and territories.Elisa BayraktarovAnastazia T BanaszakPhanor Montoya MayaJoanie KleypasJesús E Arias-GonzálezMacarena BlancoJohanna Calle-TriviñoNufar CharuviCamilo Cortés-UsecheVictor GalvánMiguel A García SalgadoMariana GneccoSergio D Guendulain-GarcíaEdwin A Hernández DelgadoJosé A Marín MoragaMaría Fernanda MayaSandra Mendoza QuirozSamantha Mercado CervantesMegan MorikawaGabriela NavaValeria PizarroRita I Sellares-BlascoSamuel E Suleimán RamosTatiana Villalobos CuberoMaría F VillalpandoSarah Frías-TorresCoral reefs worldwide are degrading due to climate change, overfishing, pollution, coastal development, coral bleaching, and diseases. In areas where the natural recovery of an ecosystem is negligible or protection through management interventions insufficient, active restoration becomes critical. The Reef Futures symposium in 2018 brought together over 400 reef restoration experts, businesses, and civil organizations, and galvanized them to save coral reefs through restoration or identify alternative solutions. The symposium highlighted that solutions and discoveries from long-term and ongoing coral reef restoration projects in Spanish-speaking countries in the Caribbean and Eastern Tropical Pacific were not well known internationally. Therefore, a meeting of scientists and practitioners working in these locations was held to compile the data on the extent of coral reef restoration efforts, advances and challenges. Here, we present unpublished data from 12 coral reef restoration case studies from five Latin American countries, describe their motivations and techniques used, and provide estimates on total annual project cost per unit area of reef intervened, spatial extent as well as project duration. We found that most projects used direct transplantation, the coral gardening method, micro-fragmentation or larval propagation, and aimed to optimize or scale-up restoration approaches (51%) or provide alternative, sustainable livelihood opportunities (15%) followed by promoting coral reef conservation stewardship and re-establishing a self-sustaining, functioning reef ecosystems (both 13%). Reasons for restoring coral reefs were mainly biotic and experimental (both 42%), followed by idealistic and pragmatic motivations (both 8%). The median annual total cost from all projects was $93,000 USD (range: $10,000 USD-$331,802 USD) (2018 dollars) and intervened a median spatial area of 1 ha (range: 0.06 ha-8.39 ha). The median project duration was 3 years; however, projects have lasted up to 17 years. Project feasibility was high with a median of 0.7 (range: 0.5-0.8). This study closes the knowledge gap between academia and practitioners and overcomes the language barrier by providing the first comprehensive compilation of data from ongoing coral reef restoration efforts in Latin America.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228477 |
| spellingShingle | Elisa Bayraktarov Anastazia T Banaszak Phanor Montoya Maya Joanie Kleypas Jesús E Arias-González Macarena Blanco Johanna Calle-Triviño Nufar Charuvi Camilo Cortés-Useche Victor Galván Miguel A García Salgado Mariana Gnecco Sergio D Guendulain-García Edwin A Hernández Delgado José A Marín Moraga María Fernanda Maya Sandra Mendoza Quiroz Samantha Mercado Cervantes Megan Morikawa Gabriela Nava Valeria Pizarro Rita I Sellares-Blasco Samuel E Suleimán Ramos Tatiana Villalobos Cubero María F Villalpando Sarah Frías-Torres Coral reef restoration efforts in Latin American countries and territories. PLoS ONE |
| title | Coral reef restoration efforts in Latin American countries and territories. |
| title_full | Coral reef restoration efforts in Latin American countries and territories. |
| title_fullStr | Coral reef restoration efforts in Latin American countries and territories. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Coral reef restoration efforts in Latin American countries and territories. |
| title_short | Coral reef restoration efforts in Latin American countries and territories. |
| title_sort | coral reef restoration efforts in latin american countries and territories |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228477 |
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