building resilience to global climate change ‘coral gardening’ in belize

Building Resilience to Global Climate Change

‘Coral Gardening’ in Belize

What’s the problem?• Increasing sea temperature

– coral bleaching ‘95, ‘98, ‘05, ‘08, ‘09

• Under stress, the animals that build coral reefs release their zooxanthellae.(a process known as bleaching)– This is a small algae that lives in coral tissue. – It gives corals their colour and uses sunlight to perform

photosynthesis, providing the coral with necessary food and oxygen.

• Bleached corals could be re-colonized by the algae if conditions return to normal.

• If bleaching is not reversed, corals on reefs may dies, and the cora reef could looses its functions such as being able to effectively act as a shelter and breeding ground for fish and other marine species.

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The algae provide coral with greater than 90% of their food. The remaining 10% is obtain by detrital feeding (food particles from the water column).

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Corals are actually the main reef builders, which they perform through the process of precipitation. They precipitate calcium carbonate, which is used to build the reef. The layering of calcium carbonate over millions of years allows for the build-up of the coral reef framework. When corals are stress such as in the case of bleaching, however, their ability to precipitate calicum carbonate is hampered.

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It is the corals that release the zooxanthellae when they are stressed.

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When the corals expel their algae, they become bleached and if this condition is prolonged, they can die of starvation (since loss (0% of food source). If the temperature of the water reverts to tolerable conditions, algae in the water column can re-enter the coral tissue and the corals on the reef can survive.

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If corals on the reef die from the bleaching event, the reef is often colonized by fleshy macroalgae that are very fastgrowing and thus take over the available space on the reef (space that was once inhabitated by live corals). When this happens, there is no space for baby or juvenile corals to exist so the coral reef can undergo a phase-shift from a domination by corals to adomination by flesy macroalgae. The corals are one of the most important species on the reef because the build the reef, allowing the reef matrix to grow. If all corals on a reef die, the reef would start to go suffer erosion over time (e.g. from wave activity and by bioeroders). The corals helps to prevent this from happening by tipping the scale towards reef acretion (build-up) over erosion.When the above happens, then the coral reef can no longer efficiently function as a habitat, shelter, etc. for fish and other important marine species.

What results?

From this ………………………………….. To this ………………………………..

What is coral gardening?

• An innovative approach to increase the resilience of the reef to climate change

• Take broken corals, re-plant them in ‘gardens’• Work out which corals have genetic resilience to

bleaching• Grow and plant these corals for a healthy reef and

one that can resist climate change

Where are we working?

Laughing Bird Caye National Park in southern Belize

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I inserted a map on the other slide showing the nurseries, etc.

Southern Belize Sites Stars represent coral nurseries, yellow dots collecting areas(For scale, Gladden Spit is 60km from Placencia)

Location of natural Staghorn recruit

Approximate locations of some transplanted fragments at Laughing Bird Caye National Park

Who’s involved?• WWF, World Bank, Caribbean Community

Climate Change Centre. – Principal researcher is Lisa Carne

• Active participation of tour guides, reef managers and community members.

• Coral genetic scientists:– Dr. Andrew (Uni of Miami) – Dr Iliana Baums (Pennsylvania State Uni)

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His name is Dr. Andrew Baker.

‘Coral gardening’ in action

Broken coral samples are collected in the wild. One approach to planting is to attach coral to concrete bases

Cookies on tray method of growing corals.

Now planted underwater, this nursery contains Staghorn and Elkhorn corals. At rear – larger ‘plants’!

An alternative planting method – the ‘mound’.

A close up view of the Staghorn and Elkhorn corals, which are zip tied to wires.

A tour guide cleans off the algae that grows on the nursery frame.

Nursery monitoring occurs regularly to check that the garden is growing!

6 month old coral samples are collected from the nursery ready for re-planting.

11 month old Staghorn corals are taken to the Laughing Bird Caye National Park in southern Belize for replanting.

Re-planting of Staghorn begins by attaching pieces of coral on to a rope.

The rope and coral fragments are attached to a dead section of the reef using nails.

Staghorn coral fragments are also re-planted to the reef using cement!

A coral colony re-established thanks to the coral gardening initiative.

Result: resilient, vibrant reefs

What next?

• Continuation and replication of coral nursery initiatives through participatory efforts with local community members, and tour guides and operators.

• Additional training of partners in coral nursery set-up, monitoring and maintenance.

• Continued research into coral and algae clade bleaching resistance levels and outplanting of potentially resilient corals to reefs.

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I added they points.

Next Steps…

•Determine spawning dates for acroporids (Staghorn and Elkhorn corals) in Belize (July/Aug 2001)

•Mapping remaining large patches

•Collect & ship X amount acroporid samples from outer reef for zooxanthellae clade ID

•Design Phase Two including out-planting experiments: different locations/depths.

• Consultants on how can we enhance recruitment?

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I added this slide to touch on the research side.

building resilience to global climate change ‘coral gardening’ in belize

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