Abstract

ROBLES-PAYAN, Alejandra; REYES-BONILLA, Héctor  and  CACERES-MARTINEZ, Carlos. Coral growth and survival during the first gardening phase in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Rev. Mex. Biodiv. [online]. 2021, vol.92, e923594.  Epub Mar 07, 2022. ISSN 2007-8706.  https://doi.org/10.22201/ib.20078706e.2021.92.3594.

The negative impact of natural disturbances and tourism has degraded stony coral communities leading to a decrease in coral cover. It is necessary to carry out restoration efforts in order to recover the ecological functions and environmental services they offer. In this study the survival and growth rates were evaluated in 96 coral fragments of the genus Pocillopora cultivated at Pichilingue Bay (Baja California Sur), from January 2018 to February 2019 and a model was created to predict the reef surface that these corals could restore considering their survival and growth speed. The fragments showed high survival (95%); growth rates were 46.34 ± 2.35 mm/yr in height, 54.62 ± 3.34 mm/ yr in larger diameter, 57.90 ± 2.05 mm/yr in smaller diameter and 7,516.22 mm3/yr in volume of the colony. Both survival and growth were high compared to other works carried out in the Mexican Pacific and the Eastern Tropical Pacific, which shows the good conditions of the site where the nursery was established for coral development. The model indicates that the reef surface recovered by the corals would reach 342,826 cm2 in 15 years.

Keywords : Pocillopora; Coral restoration; Coral gardening; Transplants; Nursery; Growth rate; Survival rate.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )