Guest, JamesBaria-Rodriguez, Maria VanessaToh, Tai Chongdela Cruz, DexterVicentuan, KareenGomez, EdgardoVillanueva, RonaldSteinberg, PeterEdwards, Alasdair2025-03-232023-11-06Guest, J., Baria-Rodriguez, M. V., Toh, T. C., dela Cruz, D., Vicentuan, K., Gomez, E., Villanueva, R., Steinberg, P., & Edwards, A. (2023). Live slow, die old: larval propagation of slow-growing, stress-tolerant corals for reef restoration. Coral Reefs, 42, 1365-1377.10.1007/s00338-023-02440-1https://repository.unesco.gov.ph/handle/123456789/178We would like to thank Ronald de Guzman, Marcos Ponce, Romer Albino, Jun Castrence (Bolinao Marine Laboratory) and Prof. Chou Loke Ming (Reef Ecology Laboratory, National University of Singapore). This work was supported by the Global Environment Facility/World Bank funded Coral Reef Targeted Research for Capacity Building and Management program, a Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Tier 1 FRC Grant (Grant Number: R-154-000-432-112) and the joint University of New South Wales and Nanyang Technological University project: “Development of the Advanced Environmental Biotechnology Centre (AEBC)” under the Research Centre Funding Scheme (RCFS), project No. COY-15-EWI-RCFS/N190-2. We are extremely grateful to David Suggett and one anonymous reviewer whose comments greatly improved the manuscript.Efforts to restore coral reefs usually involve transplanting asexually propagated fast-growing corals. However, this approach can lead to outplanted populations with low genotypic diversity, composed of taxa susceptible to stressors such as marine heatwaves. Sexual coral propagation leads to greater genotypic diversity, and using slow-growing, stress-tolerant taxa may provide a longer-term return on restoration efforts due to higher outplant survival. However, there have been no reports to date detailing the full cycle of rearing stress-tolerant, slow-growing corals from eggs until sexual maturity. Here, we sexually propagated and transplanted two massive slow-growing coral species to examine long-term success as part of reef restoration efforts. Coral spat were settled on artificial substrates and reared in nurseries for approximately two years, before being outplanted and monitored for survivorship and growth for a further four years. More than half of initially settled substrates supported a living coral following nursery rearing, and survivorship was also high following outplantation with yields declining by just 10 to 14% over four years. At 6-years post-fertilisation over 90% of outplanted corals were reproductively mature, demonstrating the feasibility of restoring populations of sexually mature massive corals in under a decade. Although use of slower growing, stress tolerant corals for reef restoration may provide a longer-term return on investment due to high post-transplantation survival rates, considerable time is required to achieve even modest gains in coral cover due to their relatively slow rates of growth. This highlights the need to use a mix of species with a range of life-history traits in reef restoration and to improve survivorship of susceptible fast-growing taxa that can generate rapid increases in coral cover.enCoral reefsCoralsCoral reef restorationReproduction, AsexualArticleSDG 14 - Life below watercoral reef restorationcoralsasexual reproductionsexual reproductiontransplantationChallenge 2: Protect and restore ecosystems and biodiversityChallenge 5: Unlock ocean-based solutions to climate change