Francisco Cifuentes and Rebecca Del Vecchio

Research Question: Can coral nurseries increase coral populations in Singapore?

Situ: In its original place

Ex-situ: grown out of a coral’s natural geographic range

 

Background-

 

  1. Coral nurseries are necessary to achieve restoration because they allow the coral material to grow in shelter. Nurseries preserve, “the genetic diversity of corals from areas that are endangered by impacts of large scale destruction” (Ng et al., 424). Coral nurseries can be in situ or ex situ. Corals in ex situ nurseries are on land and are being prepared to be put into an in situ nursery (424). Ex situ nurseries are usually used over shorter periods of time than in situ ones and are more expensive to make and use (424).  Both kinds of nurseries have been used in Singapore.
  2. A year into Chou’s experiment the nurseries yielded significant results. It was recorded that, “survivorship after one year was 92%. Corals of the genera Turbinaria, Pectinia, and Pocillopora had the lowest survival rates of 75%, 71.6%, and 65.7% respectively” (Chou et. al 588). With the lowest survival rates at 65.7% and the highest at 92% the nurseries are proved to be effective.
  3. That being said, current methods of restoring coral reef structures via transplantation can have some drawbacks. For example, the overall cost to grow, maintain, and transport coral from the donor sites to the location can be extremely high, in addition to only restoring a small scale of the original reef at a time (Bongiorni et. al 2017). In addition, like with any marine life being transported from one location to another, the difference in the chemical composition of the water could affect the success of direct coral transplantation without sufficient acclimation to the water in the site. (322) Think of the uncomfortableness you feel when going from a warm pool directly to a cold pool, instead of slowly adjusting to the temperature.
    1. Coral gardening (situ farming) is becoming a much more popular method of transplanting coral into the reef sites, as it is cheaper and brings a variety of corals into reef sites all at once, instead of one by one. (322)
  4. In much of East Asia (Including Singapore), coral transplantation started out by taking coral colonies or fragments of coral from sites intended for coastal development and moving them to more secure locations. (Lionel et al., 546) This process was called mitigation and was done by both governments and non governmental agencies. That being said, due to the lack of knowledge of coral (like you can’t just leave fragments in an area without tying them down, or you can’t leave a fragment in too shallow water or its subject to being overgrown) led to only 11% of the coral populations to survive. (549) More recently in the 80’s and 90’s, artificial reefs were created with concrete modules and tyre pyramids at relocation sites to help the coral grow and give them the ideal environment which to grow in. Reefs that were made this way (and the migrating fish species to these reefs) diversified enormously during the course of seven years. (550)

 

Experimental Design

  • In situ and ex situ nurseries- four nurseries- two of each
  • Genera Turbinaria, Pectina, and Pocillopora coral
  • Plastic mesh nets over the nursery to ensure that everything stays in the area
  • Devote one site for adult coral to be transplanted to; the site is split between ex-situ coral on one side and situ coral on the other
  • The site has also been constructed with a concrete/rubber infrastructure, to shield the coral from any external threats such as sea currents and predators.
  • Record reef growth, fish species migration to the site, and health of each side of the site every month for seven years.
  • Analyze data periodically, documenting the progress of the reef from its initial placement to its current state.

 

Works cited-

 

Bongiorni, Lucia, et al. “First step in the restoration of a highly degraded coral reef (Singapore) by in situ coral intensive farming.” Aquaculture, vol. 322-323, 20 Sept. 2011, pp. 191–200., doi:10.1016/j.aquaculture.2011.09.024.

 

Chou, Loke Ming, et al. “Effectiveness of Reef Restoration in Singapore’s Rapidly Urbanizing Coastal Environment.” International Journal of Environmental Science and Development, vol. 8, no. 8, Aug. 2017, pp. 576–580., doi:10.18178/ijesd.2017.8.8.1018.

 

Lionel, Chin Soon, et al. “Current Status of Coral Reef Restoration in Singapore.” The Asian Conference on Sustainability, Energy, and the Environment, 2013, pp. 546–558.

 

Ng, Chin Soon Lionel, et al. “Coral restoration in Singapore’s sediment-Challenged sea.” Regional Studies in Marine Science, vol. 8, 2016, pp. 422–429., doi:10.1016/j.rsma.2016.05.005.