Lian Jiansheng

The effects of four transplantation methods on five coral species at the Sanya Bay

Coral transplantation is considered as one of the major tools to increase coral abundance for degraded coral reefs. To investigate the effects of various methods and coral species in transplantation, coral fragments (n=902) of five coral species were transplanted by four methods at Luhuitou, the Sanya Bay, Hainan Province, China, where the reef has been over-exploited and is still threatened by human activities and natural disasters. Ten months after the transplant, the average survivorship of the transplanted corals was 45.5%. Methodologies had different effects on the transplanted corals, but none of them was efficacious for all coral species. Methodology could not change the decreasing trend for Montipora foliosa and Acropora hyacinthus, although it did slow down their decline. All transplants of A. hyacinthus and M. foliosa had high mortalities and significant decrease on survival area, while Porites andrewsi and Galaxea fascicularis had lower mortalities and partial mortalities. Only one method had significant effect on increasing survival area of G. fascicularis, same as P. andrewsi. Out of the five transplanted coral species, Pocillopora damicornis was the only species that had living tissue area increase in all applied methods, while the others had decreased live tissue area in one or more methods. The results of this study suggested that performing coral transplantation in a highly threatened area was not efficient unless the threats were diminished or erased. Moreover, proper species selection for coral transplantation is crucial, especially in a disturbed environment. Methodology, although having limited effects on improving results of coral transplantation, cannot compensate the maladjustment of vulnerable species to the stresses on the Luhuitou Reef. Coral transplantation on Luhuitou Reef should not be performed unless the stresses are under controlled, and corals with good tolerance to the environment should be considered first.