A Decision Framework for Interventions to Increase the Persistence and Resilience of Coral Reefs (2019) / Chapter Skim
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5 Research Needs
5 Research Needs
Pages 115-144
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From page 115... ...
The best practices described in Chapter 3 and the description of the model in Chapter 4 identify priority areas where knowledge needs to be improved to create a detailed, reef-specific decision support tool. Generally, these include improved ways to identify, measure, and monitor fitness parameters of corals; greater understanding of factors that contribute to stress tolerance and associated tradeoffs for corals; and measuring the impact of interventions on demographic processes within reef ecosystems.
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From page 116... ...
4. Identify population structure, determine evidence for local adaptation, and define relevant management units for population recovery.
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From page 117... ...
RESEARCH ON FUNDAMENTAL CORAL REEF BIOLOGY Coral reefs are intensively studied ecosystems, and much progress has been made in understanding coral ecosystem dynamics through monitoring of key reef species (see overviews in Jackson et al., 2014; Wilkinson, 2008)
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From page 118... ...
2. Identify underlying causes of coral diseases and develop biomarkers of coral health, heat susceptibility, and disease diagnosis as well as ecosystem health.
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From page 119... ...
. Because many restoration approaches are dependent on disease-free corals before intervention (e.g., managed breeding, assisted gene flow)
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From page 120... ...
; however, identifying the response of this immune system to disease onset is a significant knowledge gap. In undertaking restoration of reef ecosystems, preventing or mitigating effects of disease will be paramount and aided greatly by improving the knowledge of the underlying factors contributing to disease and the corals' response at all life stages (planktonic larvae, juveniles, and adults)
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From page 121... ...
The symbiosis established between the algal dinoflagellates (Symbiodiniaceae) and the coral host underpins the health and resilience of coral reefs, and this intimate association has been the focus of a large current and historical body of research (e.g., Cowen, 1988; Falkowski et al., 1984, 2008; Suggett et al., 2017)
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From page 122... ...
4. Identify population structure, determine evidence for local adaptation, and define relevant management units for population recovery.
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From page 123... ...
Risk assessment requires an understanding of the effect an intervention might have on rebuilding within populations, as well as the impact that interventions might have on metapopulation structure as a whole. Risk assessments might also seek to understand how specific interventions impede or enhance adaptability of coral reefs into the future -- for example, whether individuals translocated across different populations enhance or reduce persistence.
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From page 124... ...
Certain physiological interventions require appropriate rearing environments for pre-exposure or delivery, which in turn rely on culture environments that are conducive to such methods. The development of appropriate release strategies for larvae should aim to improve settlement cues and optimize benthic substrates that enhance coral larval recruitment and subsequent survival (e.g., managing algal turf; Arnold et al., 2010)
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From page 125... ...
Genetic markers for target species will play a central role in fundamental coral biology research relevant to interventions and in ongoing monitoring for risk assessments. Such markers are required for defining population structure; for identifying genotypes held in captive breeding facilities and determining strategies for outcrossing; and for determining the survivorship of individuals in technologies that rely on gamete and larval seeding, sexual reproduction, and relocation.
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From page 126... ...
. Beyond "omic" databases, support for databases of life history, phylogenetic, and biogeographic data (such as the Coral Traits Database; Madin et al., 2016)
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From page 127... ...
. Finally, all data types can lead to more rapid development and parameterization of models that inform the decision-making process as described in Chapters 3 and 4: biogeographic data can identify the relevant species to consider modeling, life history data can provide parameters for those species, and phylogenetic data can help identify parameters for closely related species when data for a given target species are not available.
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From page 128... ...
would further resolve the predictive value of modeling efforts. Being able to quantify these coral speciesspecific responses to environmental change would importantly assist in identifying when environmental interventions, which reduce stress experienced by coral, would have an impact on coral survival or increase the benefit of other coral interventions.
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From page 129... ...
As the committee illustrates in its model in Chapter 4, it is important to integrate the impact of local stressors (and management of these stressors) into a decision framework to evaluate the use of the more novel coral interventions as part of a comprehensive management strategy.
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From page 130... ...
As noted in Research Need #7, the success of interventions that involve outplanting, such as managed breeding and managed relocation, might depend on population- and community-level thresholds in values such as genetic diversity (Baums, 2008; Miller et al., 2018) and coral cover (Mumby et al., 2007)
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From page 131... ...
Similarly, the risk of releases or managed relocations from such programs on target populations should be evaluated by measuring the degree of genetic divergence between the source and target populations and estimating their effective population sizes. The risk to local populations may increase with greater genetic divergence of introduced individuals (whether through inadvertent changes due to domestication or to deliberate manipulation)
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From page 132... ...
Most proposed interventions are at the reef scale (increased turbidity, shading layers, microbubble ocean whitening, mixing of cool waters, abiotic and biotic ocean acidification interventions) potentially focused on high-value reefs, though atmospheric shading (marine cloud/sky brightening)
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From page 133... ...
For this example, traditional management of herbivores was assessed with assisted gene flow and atmospheric shading. However, empirical data that identify the synergies between both traditional management and the array of novel intervention strategies are a necessity and to date have not been collected at any scale.
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From page 134... ...
Managed breeding and managed relocation interventions also have the potential to spread disease. Through improved understanding of the underlying etiology of coral diseases, development of rapid diagnostic assays for the identification of pathogens and quantification of their abundance and/or virulence is possible and should be a long-term goal of disease studies to reduce risks associated with intervention approaches (Pollock et al., 2011)
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From page 135... ...
Risk assessment based on evolutionary principles requires the development of models to assess the impact of gene flow from introduced corals on the genetic diversity of established populations, which in turn influences population demographic processes (Baskett and Waples, 2013; Ford, 2002; Lynch and O'Hely, 2001; Tufto, 2017)
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From page 136... ...
Risk assessments that combine genetic models with demographic models may include density dependence, competitive interactions, and changes in community composition through interactions with other species such as symbionts, fish, and macroalgae.
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From page 137... ...
Developing coral-specific diets that promote increased fitness through enhanced heterotrophic feeding can also contain antioxidants and symbionts (algal and microbial probiotics) that confer benefits to the coral host.
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From page 138... ...
Many of the environmental interventions require significant technology development that can be adapted for application in reef ecosystems. For interventions such as atmospheric shading and cool water mixing, the challenges lie in the design, engineering, and deployment of equipment and infrastructure to ensure that they are feasible and effective at their desired scale of impact.
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From page 139... ...
. Any intervention that is conducted for coral reefs will rely on monitoring coral populations and broader reef ecosystems to assess effectiveness of the approach and to identify any unintended consequences.
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From page 140... ...
Therefore, many of the proposed interventions require extensive small- to medium-scale trials to assess the benefit, risks, and scalability, thus informing the knowledge gaps and reducing the uncertainties. This process can require an extensive period of testing and trialing as some approaches need to be assessed over generational times for coral populations.
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From page 141... ...
from a global climate model designed to capture large-scale characteristics of the global climate system (Stock et al., 2011) , whereas SSTs most relevant to coral reefs vary at spatial scales of less than 1 kilometer and temporal scales of hours to weeks.
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From page 142... ...
Development of stable, long-lived databases and highperformance computing resources that house such coral reef data would support analyses focused on resilience and restoration. The Coral Trait Database is a good example of a valuable resource that consolidates information pertaining to coral life history, phylogenetic, and biogeographic data; it is freely available to scientists and reef managers throughout the world (Madin et al., 2016)
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From page 143... ...
This workforce will need to include local, culturally connected scientists, managers, and practitioners. Workforce and infrastructure capacity are important to develop within coral reef jurisdictions around the world.
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