Harnessing natural recovery processes to improve restoration outcomes: an experimental assessment of sponge-mediated coral reef restoration.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Restoration is increasingly implemented to reestablish habitat structure and function following physical anthropogenic disturbance, but scientific knowledge of effectiveness of methods lags behind demand for guidelines. On coral reefs, recovery is largely dependent on coral reestablishment, and substratum stability is critical to the survival of coral fragments and recruits. Concrete is often used to immobilize rubble, but its ecological performance has not been rigorously evaluated, and restoration has generally fallen short of returning degraded habitat to pre-disturbance conditions. Fragments of erect branching sponges mediate reef recovery by facilitating rubble consolidation, yet such natural processes have been largely overlooked in restoring reefs.

Methods

SUBMITTER: Biggs BC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3672152 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature