Oriana Migliaccio

Anantara Dhigu, South Male Atoll, Maldives
Author    Correspondence author
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

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.

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)

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.

Coral; Coral nursery; Coral reef; Restoration strategies; Rope nurseries