The Role of Outplant Density on Coral Survivorship, Growth, Predation Impacts, and Disease Spread

This collaborative project evaluated the role of coral outplant density on the survivorship and growth of corals with branching and massive colony morphologies. They found that fish predation was the main driver of tissue losses for massive corals. While differences in predation impacts were found among species and sites, outplant density was not a significant driver of predation impacts. Thus, planting corals in dense arrays does not appear to provide any benefits to corals through predation dilution. In addition, the research team completed the assisted migration of endangered Elkhorn colonies from Monroe County into Miami-Dade and Broward counties to increase the genetic and genotypic diversity of this species.  54 individual genotypes of Elkhorn coral were outplanted onto five reefs from Monroe to Broward County. Three months after outplanting, survivorship was ~97%. No disease was observed at any of the outplanted corals or the areas surrounding the outplant plots during this study.