In the context of climate change and bleaching events, coral reefs are threatened and experience major coral cover decrease worldwide. Coral restoration projects are implemented to protect local ecosystems and participate to their natural resilience, yet quantitative statistical analyses are often lacking to assess their efficiency in terms of coral growth. Such studies are needed as those programs are often submitted to devastating bleaching events during abnormally warm seasons.
This study aims at comparing two protocols for protecting coral reefs during bleaching events: shading the colonies or moving them to greater depths. The data was collected from an experiment using mobile coral frames in the Maldives. The analysis performed was based on the frames’ monitoring pictures and revealed that shaded conditions hold a great potential for long-term success of coral restoration. Indeed, shaded corals present no major difference in growth rate and coral cover than ones fully exposed to sunlight, while being less susceptible to bleaching. However, greater depths were proved to significantly slow down the coral growth, although not necessarily impacting the total cover. Coral restoration programmes then need to carefully consider local environmental conditions to select the location in which to place colonies according to their aim.
