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Abstract Recent warm temperatures driven by climate change have caused mass coral bleaching and mortality across the world, prompting managers, policymakers, and conservation practitioners to embrace restoration as a strategy to sustain coral reefs. Despite a proliferation of new coral reef restoration efforts globally and increasing scientific recognition and research on interventions aimed at supporting reef resilience to climate impacts, few restoration programs are currently incorporating climate change and resilience in project design. As climate change will continue to degrade coral reefs for decades to come, guidance is needed to support managers and restoration practitioners to conduct restoration that promotes resilience through enhanced coral reef recovery, resistance, and adaptation. Here, we address this critical implementation gap by providing recommendations that integrate resilience principles into restoration design and practice, including for project planning and design, coral selection, site selection, and broader ecosystem context. We also discuss future opportunities to improve restoration methods to support enhanced outcomes for coral reefs in response to climate change. As coral reefs are one of the most vulnerable ecosystems to climate change, interventions that enhance reef resilience will help to ensure restoration efforts have a greater chance of success in a warming world. They are also more likely to provide essential contributions to global targets to protect natural biodiversity and the human communities that rely on reefs.
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Why keep monitoring coral reefs?
Abstract The high demand for information on how coral reefs are changing often exceeds the capacity of the scientific community to deliver the data necessary to meet this need. However, given the degraded state of coral reefs and the poor prognosis for their recovery, it is reasonable to ask whether coral reef monitoring should continue. Using my experiences from a 37-year study in the US Virgin Islands, I highlight the information that monitoring conveys on the changing state of coral reefs, and underscore how the interpretation of ecological trends matures with increasing longevity of records. Because the past is an imperfect predictor of the future, monitoring coral reefs remains an important endeavor. It offers the only opportunity to understand how reefs will continue to change, to connect patterns of change to the processes causing them to occur, and to create opportunities for management to best ensure their future.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2019992
- PAR ID:
- 10532150
- Publisher / Repository:
- Oxford University Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- BioScience
- Volume:
- 74
- Issue:
- 8
- ISSN:
- 0006-3568
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 552-560
- Size(s):
- p. 552-560
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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