Journal
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL MARINE BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY
Volume 368, Issue 2, Pages 124-128Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.jembe.2008.08.017
Keywords
Anti-fouling; Coral nursery; Restoration
Categories
Funding
- EC Collective Research [CORALZOO-012547]
- AID-CDR Program [C23-004]
- World Bank/GEF Project
- INCO-DEV Project [REEFRES-510657]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The 'gardening concept' for reef restoration focuses on coral colonies farming in mid-water nurseries before their transplantation onto denuded reef areas. Nurseries situated in a nutrient-enriched environment significantly curtail nursery time, but extend labor, as nursery construction and farmed corals must be frequently cleaned from competing fouling organisms. Mass farming of corals calls, therefore. for efficient and cheap maintenance methodologies, which we here tested by employing Aqua-guard M250, an antifouling agent used in the fish farming industry. We found that this anti-fouling paint, while reducing fouling organisms on nursery components during the crucial phase of coral ramets' development from nubbins and small fragments sizes to colony sizes suitable for transplantation, is not toxic to maricultured coral fragments that staged more than 2 cm away from the paint. Applying small quantities of such antifouling paint to coral nurseries, while restricting its use to nursery components that are not in direct contact with farmed coral material, reduces fouling coverage and cleaning procedures by 90%. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available