Surviving the first year after settlement presents a great challenge to young, tiny coral polyps. Running this gauntlet is currently a major bottleneck for successfully reseeding corals onto reefs.
What factors contribute to high coral mortality as juveniles?
Can we give them a competitive advantage by deploying them in certain areas or on specific substrates?
These questions are the focus of new research being undertaken in the Keppel Islands and at the National Sea Simulator (SeaSim) at AIMS.
In an effort to improve our understanding of the drivers of post-settlement survival, a diversity of coral species has been collected from the Keppels and will be spawned at SeaSim. These species represent the most significant and abundant reef building corals in the region. The spawn will be reared at AIMS and the larvae will be settled onto substrates for deployment across sites in the Keppel islands, where their growth and survival will be measured.
The Keppel islands offer an ideal inshore natural laboratory due to the strong environmental gradients in water quality and depth that exist throughout the region. These sites will enable us to pinpoint the important environmental drivers of juvenile coral survival and growth. We’ll investigate how species differ in their responses, and how restoration-substrate type and design could improve survival.
We will build on the knowledge gained during this spawning season to perform more targeted field deployments, and to spawn the Keppel corals on country in collaboration with the Woppaburra traditional owners.