Improving and expanding the portfolio of grazers available for coral co-culture and reef restoration

This project demonstrated the utility of invertebrate grazers (snails and urchins) in co-culture with sexually propagated SCTLD-susceptible corals. Significant resources have been dedicated to holding and spawning Florida corals in land-based systems, and this work improves the return on that investment by reducing staff time spent on algal control during the grow-out phase. While almost all grazers tested resulted in reduced algal cover, specific grazers and assemblages resulted in increased growth to both small symmetrical brain coral colonies and grooved brain coral recruits – two restoration priority corals. This project affirmed herbivore co-culture as a feasible propagation strategy and the researchers suggests that next steps should include further investigation to refine grazer species, sizes, biomass, and density used in coral co-culture