International Journal of Marine Science, 2024, Vol.14, No.5, 321-331 http://www.aquapublisher.com/index.php/ijms 321 Research Report Open Access Optimizing Coral Farming: A Comparative Analysis of Nursery Designs for Acropora aspera, Acropora muricata, and Montipora digitatain Anantara Lagoon, Maldives Migliaccio O. Anantara Dhigu, South Male Atoll, Maldives Corresponding email: oriana.migliaccio@gmail.com International Journal of Marine Science, 2024, Vol.14, No.5, doi: 10.5376/ijms.2024.14.0036 Received: 15 Aug., 2024 Accepted: 27 Sep., 2024 Published: 21 Oct., 2024 Copyright © 2024 Migliaccio. This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Migliaccio O., 2024, Optimizing coral farming: a comparative analysis of nursery designs for Acropora aspera, Acropora muricata, and Montipora digitata in Anantara Lagoon, Maldives, International Journal of Marine Science, 14(5): 321-331 (doi: 10.5376/ijms.2024.14.0036) Abstract Maldivian coral reefs have undergone a substantial degradation due to a combination of anthropogenic pressure and global climate change. In response to the 2016 coral bleaching event, Anantara Dhigu, Anantara Veli, and Naladhu Private Island launched the Holistic Approach to Reef Protection (HARP) project, aiming to restore the house-reef. This study, a key component of HARP, evaluates the effectiveness of two coral nursery designs, rope-based and metal table-based, at two depths (⁓2 m and⁓5 m) for the propagation of Acropora aspera, Acropora muricata, and Montipora digitata. Over six months, bimonthly underwater surveys assessed growth rates, ecological volume, health conditions, disease presence, predation, and survival rates. Results indicate that rope-based nurseries generally outperform metal tables, with higher growth rates and better survival rates observed on ropes. Specifically, Montipora digitata showed the most substantial growth at 2 meters depth, reaching up to 5 cm in six months. Additionally, rope nurseries demonstrated significantly lower predation rates and better overall health conditions compared to metal tables. While coral survival was comparable across nursery designs, the study suggests that shallower depths favor coral growth due to enhanced light availability. However, shallower depths also correlated with higher mortality during a recent bleaching event, emphasizing the need to balance depth considerations with potential thermal stress. This study underscores the advantages of rope-based nurseries in promoting coral growth and survival, offering valuable insights for coral restoration strategies in shallow lagoon ecosystems. Keywords Coral; Coral nursery; Coral reef; Restoration strategies; Rope nurseries 1 Introduction Coral reefs represent one of Earth's richest ecosystems in terms of biodiversity, offering invaluable goods and services estimated to be worth up to $9.9 trillion annually (Costanza et al., 2014). Nearly 1 billion people reside within 100 kilometers of a coral reef, highlighting a global-scale societal reliance that places at the same time a substantial stress on reef health (Burdett et al., 2024). Anthropogenic activities and climate change-induced stressors, such as increase in ocean temperatures, acidification, deoxygenation, pollution and sea level rise, pose profound challenges to the resilience and survival of coral reefs in many countries. Among the regions significantly impacted is the Maldives, where coral reefs have experienced substantial degradation due to a combination of local human pressures and global environmental changes (Hughes et al., 2017; Pancrazi et al., 2023). Maldivian coral reefs experienced three severe recorded bleaching events in 1998, in 2016 and in 2024. After the 1998 bleaching event, more than 90% of hard corals have reported to died (Edwards et al., 2001), and it took 16 years for reefs to recover the pre-bleaching values of live hard coral cover (Morri et al., 2015). Following the coral bleaching event of 2016, a pilot program named the Holistic Approach to Reef Protection (HARP) was initiated by Anantara Dhigu, Anantara Veli, and Naladhu Private Island, to preserve and restore the coral reef, in collaboration with Coral Reef CPR. The project was funded through Dollars for Deeds, a Corporate Social Responsibility initiative implemented by Minor Hotels. The latest bleaching event occurred in 2024. Coral recovery and mortality studies are currently ongoing. In response to these challenges, numerous coral conservation initiatives are being implemented across the Maldives, particularly within island resorts and community islands (Dehnert et al., 2022; Pancrazi et al., 2023). These efforts aim to rehabilitate and sustainably manage shallow coral reefs, crucial for supporting biodiversity, fisheries, and coastal protection (Cinner et al., 2018).
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