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Suedel BC, Wilkens JL, McQueen AD, Gailani JZ, Lackey TC, Mays N. Adaptation of a risk-based framework for evaluating indirect effects of dredging on sensitive habitats near federal navigation channels: An application of the framework to coral reefs at Honolulu Harbor, Hawai'i. INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT 2024; 20:547-561. [PMID: 37593916 DOI: 10.1002/ieam.4830] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2023] [Revised: 07/26/2023] [Accepted: 08/16/2023] [Indexed: 08/19/2023]
Abstract
In major harbors and ports in the United States and its territories, the US Army Corps of Engineers maintains federal navigation channels in proximity to coral reefs (e.g., Honolulu Harbor, HI; Miami Harbor, FL; Apra Harbor, Guam) and other sensitive habitats. To effectively predict potential adverse impacts from dredging activities near these sensitive habitats, a holistic approach to improve understanding of the pressures on these habitats is needed to foster a more complete prediction of risk drivers. To achieve this, risk-based frameworks that account for the full range of natural and anthropogenic impacts need to be adapted and applied specifically for assessing and managing indirect dredging impacts on sensitive environments. In this article, we address this need by incorporating a drivers-pressures-stressors-condition-response (DPSCR4 ) conceptual framework to broaden a comprehensive conceptual model of the coupled human-ecological system. To help understand these complex interactions, DPSCR4 was applied to evaluate dredging and other unrelated environmental pressures (e.g., terrestrial runoff) in a proof-of-concept dredging project in Honolulu Harbor, Hawai'i, USA, with a focus on the indirect effects of dredge plumes. Particle tracking models and risk-based tools were used to evaluate sediment resuspended during a hypothetical mechanical dredging activity near sensitive coral habitats. Stoplight indicators were developed to predict indirect sediment plume impacts on coral and then compared to exposure modeling results. The strengths and limitations of the approach are presented and the incorporation of the risk framework into environmental management decisions is discussed. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2024;20:547-561. Published 2023. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Burton C Suedel
- US Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA
| | - Justin L Wilkens
- US Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA
| | - Andrew D McQueen
- US Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA
| | - Joseph Z Gailani
- US Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA
| | - Tahirih C Lackey
- US Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA
| | - Nathan Mays
- US Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA
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Ferse SCA, Hein MY, Rölfer L. A survey of current trends and suggested future directions in coral transplantation for reef restoration. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0249966. [PMID: 33939716 PMCID: PMC8092780 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0249966] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2020] [Accepted: 03/27/2021] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Coral transplantation has been used in reef restoration for several decades, but information on the type of projects, their scope, scale, and success is mostly limited to published scientific studies and technical reports. Many practitioners do not have the capacity to share their progress in peer-reviewed literature, yet likely have a wealth of information to share on how to improve the efficiency of transplantation efforts. In order to incorporate non-published data on coral transplantation projects and gain an overview of the general features of these projects, we conducted an initial systematic online survey of projects run by various practitioners. Surveyed projects (n = 50) covered most of the tropical belt and ranged in size from a few hundred transplanted corals to >5000 transplants. The most frequent source of coral fragments were corals already broken from some previous impact (“corals of opportunity”; 58% of projects), followed by fragments stored in different types of aquaculture systems (42% of projects). The use of sexual reproduction was very limited. Fast-growing, branching corals were used in 96% of projects, being by far the most common transplanted growth form. About half of the projects mentioned undertaking maintenance of the transplantation plots. The majority of projects undertook subsequent monitoring (80%), yet the available data indicates that duration of monitoring efforts was not adequate to evaluate long-term success. The findings underline that while some general principles for successful coral restoration projects are reasonably well established, others need to be mainstreamed better in order to improve the effectiveness of coral transplantation for reef restoration. This relates in particular to sustainable funding, adequate site assessment, and long-term monitoring using established protocols. Additional information is needed to better understand and address potential challenges with regards to the sourcing of transplants and use of slow-growing species. A better integration of practitioners is necessary to improve the understanding of coral transplantation effectiveness. The results underline a need to develop and use monitoring protocols that allow gauging and comparing the effectiveness of coral transplantation among various projects, as well as for accessible platform(s) to allow the exchange of experiences made in different projects. Regular surveys of restoration projects are recommended to collate and share information among practitioners. We provide a number of recommendations for items to include in future surveys.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sebastian C. A. Ferse
- Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), Bremen, Germany
- Faculty of Biology & Chemistry (FB2), University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | - Margaux Y. Hein
- Marine Ecosystem Restoration (MER) Research and Consulting, Monaco
- TropWATER, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
| | - Lena Rölfer
- Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), Bremen, Germany
- Faculty of Biology & Chemistry (FB2), University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
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4
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Selmoni O, Rochat E, Lecellier G, Berteaux‐Lecellier V, Joost S. Seascape genomics as a new tool to empower coral reef conservation strategies: An example on north-western Pacific Acropora digitifera. Evol Appl 2020; 13:1923-1938. [PMID: 32908595 PMCID: PMC7463334 DOI: 10.1111/eva.12944] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2019] [Revised: 01/10/2020] [Accepted: 02/17/2020] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Coral reefs are suffering a major decline due to the environmental constraints imposed by climate change. Over the last 20 years, three major coral bleaching events occurred in concomitance with anomalous heatwaves, provoking a severe loss of coral cover worldwide. The conservation strategies for preserving reefs, as they are implemented now, cannot cope with global climatic shifts. Consequently, researchers are advocating for preservation networks to be set-up to reinforce coral adaptive potential. However, the main obstacle to this implementation is that studies on coral adaption are usually hard to generalize at the scale of a reef system. Here, we study the relationships between genotype frequencies and environmental characteristics of the sea (seascape genomics), in combination with connectivity analysis, to investigate the adaptive potential of a flagship coral species of the Ryukyu Archipelago (Japan). By associating genotype frequencies with descriptors of historical environmental conditions, we discovered six genomic regions hosting polymorphisms that might promote resistance against heat stress. Remarkably, annotations of genes in these regions were consistent with molecular roles associated with heat responses. Furthermore, we combined information on genetic and spatial distances between reefs to predict connectivity at a regional scale. The combination of these results portrayed the adaptive potential of this population: we were able to identify reefs carrying potential heat stress adapted genotypes and to understand how they disperse to neighbouring reefs. This information was summarized by objective, quantifiable and mappable indices covering the whole region, which can be extremely useful for future prioritization of reefs in conservation planning. This framework is transferable to any coral species on any reef system and therefore represents a valuable tool for empowering preservation efforts dedicated to the protection of coral reefs in warming oceans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oliver Selmoni
- Laboratory of Geographic Information Systems (LASIG)School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental EngineeringEcole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)LausanneSwitzerland
| | - Estelle Rochat
- Laboratory of Geographic Information Systems (LASIG)School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental EngineeringEcole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)LausanneSwitzerland
| | - Gael Lecellier
- UMR250/9220 ENTROPIE IRD‐CNRS‐URLabex CORAILNoumeaNew Caledonia
- UVSQUniversité de Paris‐SaclayVersaillesFrance
| | | | - Stéphane Joost
- Laboratory of Geographic Information Systems (LASIG)School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental EngineeringEcole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)LausanneSwitzerland
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Boström-Einarsson L, Babcock RC, Bayraktarov E, Ceccarelli D, Cook N, Ferse SCA, Hancock B, Harrison P, Hein M, Shaver E, Smith A, Suggett D, Stewart-Sinclair PJ, Vardi T, McLeod IM. Coral restoration - A systematic review of current methods, successes, failures and future directions. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0226631. [PMID: 31999709 PMCID: PMC6992220 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0226631] [Citation(s) in RCA: 97] [Impact Index Per Article: 24.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2019] [Accepted: 11/06/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Coral reef ecosystems have suffered an unprecedented loss of habitat-forming hard corals in recent decades. While marine conservation has historically focused on passive habitat protection, demand for and interest in active restoration has been growing in recent decades. However, a disconnect between coral restoration practitioners, coral reef managers and scientists has resulted in a disjointed field where it is difficult to gain an overview of existing knowledge. To address this, we aimed to synthesise the available knowledge in a comprehensive global review of coral restoration methods, incorporating data from the peer-reviewed scientific literature, complemented with grey literature and through a survey of coral restoration practitioners. We found that coral restoration case studies are dominated by short-term projects, with 60% of all projects reporting less than 18 months of monitoring of the restored sites. Similarly, most projects are relatively small in spatial scale, with a median size of restored area of 100 m2. A diverse range of species are represented in the dataset, with 229 different species from 72 coral genera. Overall, coral restoration projects focused primarily on fast-growing branching corals (59% of studies), and report survival between 60 and 70%. To date, the relatively young field of coral restoration has been plagued by similar 'growing pains' as ecological restoration in other ecosystems. These include 1) a lack of clear and achievable objectives, 2) a lack of appropriate and standardised monitoring and reporting and, 3) poorly designed projects in relation to stated objectives. Mitigating these will be crucial to successfully scale up projects, and to retain public trust in restoration as a tool for resilience based management. Finally, while it is clear that practitioners have developed effective methods to successfully grow corals at small scales, it is critical not to view restoration as a replacement for meaningful action on climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Russell C. Babcock
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Brisbane, Qld, Australia
| | | | | | | | - Sebastian C. A. Ferse
- Future Earth Coasts, Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), Bremen, Germany
- Marine Ecology Department, Faculty of Biology and Chemistry (FB2), University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
| | - Boze Hancock
- The Nature Conservancy, Arlington, Virginia, United States of America
| | | | - Margaux Hein
- TropWATER, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld, Australia
| | - Elizabeth Shaver
- The Nature Conservancy, Arlington, Virginia, United States of America
| | - Adam Smith
- Reef Ecologic, Townsville, Qld, Australia
| | - David Suggett
- University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | | | - Tali Vardi
- ECS for NOAA Fisheries, Office of Science & Technology, Silver Spring, MD, United States of America
| | - Ian M. McLeod
- TropWATER, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld, Australia
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