RESTORATION OF THE MONTH - GUANICA, PUERTO RICO

• In 2016, swells from Hurricane Matthew severely impacted Elkhorn (Acropora palmata) thickets on reefs in Guanica, on the south side of Puerto Rico.  While many colonies were impacted, there were still several healthy colonies on Gilligan's Reef. NOAA and the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources in Puerto Rico transplanted at-risk fragments to other sites that no longer had healthy populations of A. palmata with a goal to accelerate the recovery of this species over what sexual recruitment would be able to do.  

• NOAA Restoration Center working with Sea Ventures Marine Response Unit transplanted 8,500 fragments to 10 different sites during this work in 2016.  Results from this work showed that transplanting the corals to other reefs and reattaching the corals using cement was a successful method and had high survival (91%).  Sea Ventures has developed a cement recipe and technique known as “Pedro's Pancakes” to efficiently secure corals to the reef.

Hello CRC Community!

 During the month of September, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) approved and accepted a Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) at its 51st Session. Adaptation in Coral Reefs is reviewed in section 5.5.2.1.2 of Chapter 5 of the report which references the work of many CRC members. The report details that active, or adaptive, restoration such as coral gardening is a tool that can be used in all major reef regions to aid in coral reef rehabilitation.  The report point outs, however, that the potential benefits of restoration may not be realized unless the underlying drivers of coral reef degradation like warming oceans, are addressed. 

The report lists scaling-up as a primary challenge to the intervention strategy of active coral restoration, in addition to a current lack of long-term evaluations of restoration with regard to social and cultural, economic, and environmental sustainability goals. Other coral restoration questions outlined in the report as being ripe for further study are 1) What is the effectiveness of ecological engineering approaches on global change drivers? and 2) How does nursery time affect biological traits, like reproduction?

We encourage our members to consider the SROCC report when designing future studies.
 

CRC Working Group Calls:

• Larval Propagation Working Group stakeholder update- Thursday, November 14, 2019 at 2pm (EST).

CRC Announcements:

• Calling all engineers! The CRC will be forming an Engineering and Innovation Ad-Hoc Group to bring together engineers and practitioners to work on creating solutions to restoration engineering problems. Engineers, those interested in engineering, and practitioners who need solutions, please email coral.restoration@noaa.gov to be added to the group.
   

• The CRC is looking for a new Chair/Co-Chair for the Field-based Propagation Working Group! Apply HERE for the Field-based Working Group Chair leadership position. 
   

• The CRC is also looking for a new Chair/Co-Chair for the Land-based Propagation Working Group! Apply HERE for the Land-based Working Group Chair leadership position.

PARTNER ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Watch the webinar New Opportunities for Reducing Coastal Risk with Natural Defenses presented by Mike Beck, University of California at Santa Cruz.

POSITION ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Postdoctoral Position- Coral Resilience to Climate Change in the Baum Lab at the University of Victoria, Canada. Admission to the lab for the position requires an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship. As such, interested candidates must be Canadian (or permanent residents of Canada), in addition to other criteria. For questions and how to apply, please email Professor Julia Baum (baum@uvic.ca) as soon as possible.

• Postdoctoral Position open for working on Acropora palmata in the Florida Keys with the Grottoli Lab at Ohio State University. Applicants should send a cover letter, CV, statement of research interests, copy of PhD transcript, and the names and contact information of 3 letter writers (one must be PhD advisor) as a single PDF with the applicants name in the file name to grottoli.1@osu.edu by November 15, 2019.

• Reef Restoration Associate for the Coral Restoration Foundation in Key Largo, FL. 

• Dive Safety Officer/Chief Operations Officer for the Coral Restoration Foundation in Key Largo, FL.

• Coral Restoration Staff Scientist at Mote’s Elizabeth Moore International Center for Coral Reef Research and Restoration in Summerland Key, Florida. Applications due by October 31.

• Postdoctoral Fellowships at Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef funded by Lizard Island Reef Research Foundation. Applications due October 11, 2019.

• CIMAS Assistant Scientist for eDNA research at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science in NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory Ocean Chemistry and Ecosystems Division.

• Master of Philosophy at the University of Belize. This is a thesis-focused program where students will research about reef ecology, invertebrate biology & reproduction, geology, conservation, data analysis and scientific writing.

• Coral Reef Mapping Research Officer Position with the Remote Sensing Research Centre at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. Please contact Dr. Emma Kennedy (e.kennedy1@uq.edu.au) and Dr. Chris Roelfsema (c.roelfsema@uq.edu.au), for further details and to submit your expression of interest. 

• Biologist 2 at The Florida Aquarium’s Center for Conservation in Apollo Beach, FL. 

• Postdoctoral Position: The Role of US Coral Reefs and Reef Restoration in Reducing Coastal Risk with USGS Mendenhall postdoctoral research opportunity 18-13. Applications due by January 6, 2020.

• Social Scientist / Economist Position with Lynker working with NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program in Silver Spring, MD.

• Coral Restoration and Conservation Internship Application Spring 2020 with the Coral Restoration Foundation in Key Largo, FL. Application window closes on October 25th, 2019, internship begins January 6, 2020 and runs through May 1, 2020.

UPCOMING MEETINGS: 

2019

• Sep 30-Oct 3 (Berlin, Germany): Wildlife Research and Conservation 2019 (WRC2019) 

• Oct 8-10 (Belize City): Second Biennial Meeting of the MAR Reef Restoration Network. 

• Nov 3-7 (Alabama. U.S.): 25th Biennial Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation Conference. 

• Nov 4-Nov 8 (Dominican Republic): 72nd Annual conference of the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute

• Nov 30 - Dec 8 (Magoodhoo Island, Faafu Atoll, Maldives): Maldivian Coral Reef Restoration Workshop

• Dec 2-7 (Townsville, Australia) : ICRI General Meeting 34 

• Dec 14 (London, U.K.): Reef Conservation UK

2020

• Feb 9-12 (Honolulu, Hawaii): Aquaculture America 2020

• Feb 16-21 (San Diego, CA): Ocean Sciences Meeting

• June 11-19 (Marseille, France) : IUCN World Conservation Congress 

• Jul 5-10 (Bremen, Germany): 14th International Coral Reef Symposium. 

• Aug 24-27 (Kiel, Germany): 6th International Marine Conservation Congress. 

2021

• May 17-21 (Key Largo, FL): Reef Futures Conference 2021.

October 2019 MEDIA ROUNDUP 

Research:

• Craggs, J., Guest, J., Bulling, M., & Sweet, M. (2019). Ex situ co culturing of the sea urchin, Mespilia globulus and the coral Acropora millepora enhances early post-settlement survivorship. Scientific reports, 9(1), 1-12.

• Damar, A., Imran, Z., & Madduppa, H. The potential relative resilience of coral reefs in Wakatobi as a sustainable management foundation. Journal of Coastal Conservation, 1-10.

• Fidelman, P., McGrath, C., Newlands, M., Dobbs, K., Jago, B., & Hussey, K. (2019). Regulatory implications of coral reef restoration and adaptation under a changing climate. Environmental Science & Policy.

• Hagedorn, M., Spindler, R., & Daly, J. (2019). Cryopreservation as a Tool for Reef Restoration: 2019. In Reproductive Sciences in Animal Conservation (pp. 489-505). Springer, Cham.

• Quigley, K. M., Bay, L. K., & van Oppen, M. J. (2019). The active spread of adaptive variation for reef resilience. Ecology and Evolution.

News:

• Spongberg, Mary (September 25). Southern Cross tackles big-picture problems. 

• Hurst, Luke (September 25). Here's how IPCC experts think we should tackle rising oceans & melting ice.   

• Wilkinson, Claire (September 25). The Nature Conservancy looks to reef policy for US coastal areas. 

• Woody, Todd (September 25). To save our oceans, we have to change what we do on land. 

• Smith, Kat (September 25). Scientists are Growing Coral in a Lab to Save Dying Reefs. 

• Cayman News (September 18). Cayman attracts green tourism attention. 

• Sarasota Magazine (September 18). Mote Receives $250,000 in Funding for Coral Research. 

• Sevillo, Lia (September 18). Filipino Scientists Have Invented a Device to Monitor Coral Without Getting in the Water. 

• Pinto, Deekshith Nevil (September 17). Scientists Discover a Way to Restore Corals. But There’s a Catch. 

• Beck, Michael (September 17). These little organisms are saving the coastlines from monster storms. Be nice to them. 

• Danzinger, Caleb (September 16). 8 Predictions on the Advancements of 3D Printing. 

• The Guardian (September 10). Climate crisis may be disrupting the 'great orgy' of coral spawning.

The mission of the CRC is to foster collaboration and technology transfer among coral restoration scientists, practitioners, and managers, and to facilitate a community of practice that will advance coral restoration to keep pace with rapidly changing ocean and environmental conditions.