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1. Assessing the potential for demographic restoration and assisted evolution to build climate resilience in coral reefs

   https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2650  

   DeFilippo, Lukas B. ; McManus, Lisa C. ; Schindler, Daniel E. ; Pinsky, Malin L. ; Colton, Madhavi A. ; Fox, Helen E. ; Tekwa, E. W. ; Palumbi, Stephen R. ; Essington, Timothy E. ; Webster, Michael M. ( October 2022 , Ecological Applications)

   Interest is growing in developing conservation strategies to restore and maintain coral reef ecosystems in the face of mounting anthropogenic stressors, particularly climate warming and associated mass bleaching events. One such approach is to propagate coral coloniesex situand transplant them to degraded reef areas to augment habitat for reef‐dependent fauna, prevent colonization from spatial competitors, and enhance coral reproductive output. In addition to such “demographic restoration” efforts, manipulating the thermal tolerance of outplanted colonies through assisted relocation, selective breeding, or genetic engineering is being considered for enhancing rates of evolutionary adaptation to warming. Although research into such “assisted evolution” strategies has been growing, their expected performance remains unclear. We evaluated the potential outcomes of demographic restoration and assisted evolution in climate change scenarios using an eco‐evolutionary simulation model. We found that supplementing reefs with pre‐existing genotypes (demographic restoration) offers little climate resilience benefits unless input levels are large and maintained for centuries. Supplementation with thermally resistant colonies was successful at improving coral cover at lower input levels, but only if maintained for at least a century. Overall, we found that, although demographic restoration and assisted evolution have the potential to improve long‐term coral cover, both approaches had a limited impact in preventing severe declines under climate change scenarios. Conversely, with sufficient natural genetic variance and time, corals could readily adapt to warming temperatures, suggesting that restoration approaches focused on building genetic variance may outperform those based solely on introducing heat‐tolerant genotypes.

    

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2. Applying coral breeding to reef restoration: best practices, knowledge gaps, and priority actions in a rapidly‐evolving field

   https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.13913  

   Banaszak, Anastazia T. ; Marhaver, Kristen L. ; Miller, Margaret W. ; Hartmann, Aaron C. ; Albright, Rebecca ; Hagedorn, Mary ; Harrison, Peter L. ; Latijnhouwers, Kelly R. W. ; Mendoza Quiroz, Sandra ; Pizarro, Valeria ; et al ( April 2023 , Restoration Ecology)

   Reversing coral reef decline requires reducing environmental threats while actively restoring reef ecological structure and function. A promising restoration approach uses coral breeding to boost natural recruitment and repopulate reefs with genetically diverse coral communities. Recent advances in predicting spawning, capturing spawn, culturing larvae, and rearing settlers have enabled the successful propagation, settlement, and outplanting of coral offspring in all of the world's major reef regions. Nevertheless, breeding efforts frequently yield low survival, reflecting the type III survivorship curve of corals and poor condition of most reefs targeted for restoration. Furthermore, coral breeding programs are still limited in spatial scale and species diversity. Here, we highlight four priority areas for research and cooperative innovation to increase the effectiveness and scale of coral breeding in restoration: (1) expanding the number of restoration sites and species, (2) improving broodstock selection to maximize the genetic diversity and adaptive capacity of restored populations, (3) enhancing culture conditions to improve offspring health before and after outplanting, and (4) scaling up infrastructure and technologies for large‐scale coral breeding and restoration. Prioritizing efforts in these four areas will enable practitioners to address reef decline at relevant ecological scales, re‐establish self‐sustaining coral populations, and ensure the long‐term success of restoration interventions. Overall, we aim to guide the coral restoration community toward actions and opportunities that can yield rapid technical advances in larval rearing and coral breeding, foster interdisciplinary collaborations, and ultimately achieve the ecological restoration of coral reefs.

    

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3. Geographically driven differences in microbiomes of Acropora cervicornis originating from different regions of Florida’s Coral Reef

   https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13574  

   Williams, Sara D. ; Klinges, J. Grace ; Zinman, Samara ; Clark, Abigail S. ; Bartels, Erich ; Villoch Diaz Maurino, Marina ; Muller, Erinn M. ( January 2022 , PeerJ)

   Effective coral restoration must include comprehensive investigations of the targeted coral community that consider all aspects of the coral holobiont—the coral host, symbiotic algae, and microbiome. For example, the richness and composition of microorganisms associated with corals may be indicative of the corals’ health status and thus help guide restoration activities. Potential differences in microbiomes of restoration corals due to differences in host genetics, environmental condition, or geographic location, may then influence outplant success. The objective of the present study was to characterize and compare the microbiomes of apparently healthy Acropora cervicornis genotypes that were originally collected from environmentally distinct regions of Florida’s Coral Reef and sampled after residing within Mote Marine Laboratory’s in situ nursery near Looe Key, FL (USA) for multiple years. By using 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing, we described the microbial communities of 74 A. cervicornis genotypes originating from the Lower Florida Keys ( n  = 40 genotypes), the Middle Florida Keys ( n  = 15 genotypes), and the Upper Florida Keys ( n  = 19 genotypes). Our findings demonstrated that the bacterial communities of A. cervicornis originating from the Lower Keys were significantly different from the bacterial communities of those originating from the Upper and Middle Keys even after these corals were held within the same common garden nursery for an average of 3.4 years. However, the bacterial communities of corals originating in the Upper Keys were not significantly different from those in the Middle Keys. The majority of the genotypes, regardless of collection region, were dominated by Alphaproteobacteria, namely an obligate intracellular parasite of the genus Ca. Aquarickettsia . Genotypes from the Upper and Middle Keys also had high relative abundances of Spirochaeta bacteria. Several genotypes originating from both the Lower and Upper Keys had lower abundances of Aquarickettsia , resulting in significantly higher species richness and diversity. Low abundance of Aquarickettsia has been previously identified as a signature of disease resistance. While the low- Aquarickettsia corals from both the Upper and Lower Keys had high abundances of an unclassified Proteobacteria, the genotypes in the Upper Keys were also dominated by Spirochaeta . The results of this study suggest that the abundance of Aquarickettsia and Spirochaeta may play an important role in distinguishing bacterial communities among A. cervicornis populations and compositional differences of these bacterial communities may be driven by regional processes that are influenced by both the environmental history and genetic relatedness of the host. Additionally, the high microbial diversity of low- Aquarickettsia genotypes may provide resilience to their hosts, and these genotypes may be a potential resource for restoration practices and management. 

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4. Near‐term impacts of coral restoration on target species, coral reef community structure, and ecological processes

   https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.12939  

   Ladd, Mark C. ; Burkepile, Deron E. ; Shantz, Andrew A. ( March 2019 , Restoration Ecology)

   The global decline of corals has created an urgent need for effective, science‐based methods to augment coral populations and restore important ecosystem functions. To meet this challenge, the field of coral restoration has rapidly evolved over the past decade. However, despite widespread efforts to outplant corals and monitor survivorship, there is a shortage of information on the effects of coral restoration on reef communities or important ecosystem functions. To fill this knowledge gap, we examined the effects of restoration on three major criteria: diversity, community structure, and ecological processes. We conducted surveys of four restored sites in the Florida Keys ranging in restoration effort (500–2,300 corals outplanted) paired with surveys of nearby, unmanipulated control sites. Coral restoration successfully enhanced coral populations, increasing coral cover 4‐fold, but manifested in limited differences in coral and fish communities. Some restored sites had higher abundance of herbivorous fish, rates of herbivory, or more juvenile‐sized corals, but these effects were limited to individual reefs. Damselfish were consistently more abundant at restored compared to control sites. Despite augmenting target coral populations, 3 years of coral restoration has not facilitated many of the positive feedbacks that help reinforce coral success. In a time of increasingly frequent disturbances, it is urgent we hasten the speed at which reefs recover important ecological processes, such as herbivory and nutrient cycling, that make reefs more resistant and resilient if we are to achieve long‐term restoration success.

    

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5. Urban streams in Latin America: Current conditions and research needs

   https://doi.org/10.15517/RBT.V68IS2.44330  

   Walteros, Jeymmy M. ; Ramírez, Alonso ( October 2020 , Revista de Biología Tropical)

   null (Ed.)

   Introduction: Latin America is a highly urbanized region, with most of its population living in cities and urban centers. While information about urban streams in Latin America is rather limited, streams are expected to experience similar environmental impacts and conservation issues as urban streams in parts of the globe, including habitat loss, channelization, sewage discharge, trash, and loss of riparian habitats. Objective: We surveyed a network of researchers from approximately 80% of the countries in Latin America to obtain information on the condition, state of knowledge, and threats to urban streams in the region. Methods: Most participants were reached via the Macrolatinos@ network (www.macrolatinos.net). Results: We obtained 104 responses from researchers in 18 of the 23 Latin American countries. Most urban streams are impacted or degraded, and inputs of contaminants and wastewater discharges were considered major drivers of stream degradation. Most respondents indicated that stream channelization is common, with some streams completely channelized or buried. Sewage and rainfall runoff management were identified as a major factor degrading streams, with most respondents suggesting that streams are a primary destination for wastewater discharge, much of which is untreated. Major limitations to urban stream conservation in Latin America are the result of limited ecological knowledge, lack of citizen interest or political will to protect them. There are isolated efforts to restore urban streams and riparian zones, but these are initial steps that need further development. Conclusions: Our research network of Latin American scientists proved to be a valuable tool to assess a large number of urban rivers in a relatively understudied region.  Urban streams in Latin America face a diversity of stressors and management challenges, and we propose three areas that would benefit from further research to improve our understanding and management of these systems: (1) Studies should focus on the watershed, rather than isolated reaches, (2) researchers should strive to attain a better understanding of ecosystem function and the services provided by urban streams to justify management and restoration efforts, and (3) studies that integrate economic models where downstream users pay for upstream protection and restoration could prove beneficial for many Latin American cities in attempting to address water conservation issues. 

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