A Regional Assessment of Coral Restoration within the Western Atlantic with a Case Study of Barbados

Coral reefs accommodate as much as a quarter of all known marine species and generate billions of US$ per year through ecosystem services such as coastal protection, fishery and tourism. Unfortunately, the hard coral global coverage is rapidly declining. Especially the coral reefs of the Caribbean Sea have experienced a severe deteriorating in the last four decades. Many projects have sought to restore or rehabilitate the reefs, often with varied success of coral growth and survival. This paper investigates previous research on coral restoration within the Caribbean region to establish which methods are most commonly used and of those, which have produced the best hard coral survival rate. The information is gathered through a regional meta-analysis of studies with set criteria that have quantified the effects of assorted coral restoration methodological approaches. In addition, the study monitored a recent coral restoration initiative in Barbados succeeding the outplanting of ex situ grown coral micro-fragments and their further development on the local coral reefs. The meta-analysis showed increased survival rate in fragments outplanted following a nursery phase, which is coherent with the findings of the case study of this thesis. Further survival was absent in the case study.