MAE: Habitat restoration
To counterbalance detrimental effects of anthropogenic influences on coral reefs, efforts are taken to restore reefs. Restoration efforts can take the form of rearing coral fragments in nurseries or placing artificial structures to promote benthic and pelagic biodiversity. Another aspect of habitat restoration is the genetic health and resilience of transplanted coral fragments. Marine Animal Ecology works in Kenya, the Dutch Caribbean and the North Sea on various restoration projects.
REEFolution Kenya
The second longest fringing reefs of the world can be found at the eastern coast of Africa, stretching from Somalia to northern Mozambique. The reefs in Kenya are part of this biodiverse system, but currently under threat of overfishing and global climate change. REEFolution Kenya has been founded in 2015 and since then focusses on the restoration of coral reefs by building coral nurseries to grow coral fragments before outplanting them and raising environmental awareness. Projects include:
Community structures on artificial reefs
Coral cover on Caribbean reefs has been declining severly over the past decades. The loss of three-dimensional structure has cascading detrimental effects on biodiversity structure and function. Artifical reefs can be a solution to the loss of habitat structure and rugosity by providing hard substrate for new life to settle on. A current project aims to test the performance of different types of artificial reef structures. Benthic and fish assemblages are monitored to see differences in biodiversity and function.
North Sea vitalization
Biogenic reefs (hard structures formed by various organisms) are vital components of marine ecosystems. However, many of those reefs are disappearing. The North Sea is one example of an area with disappearing reefs as it used to harbor dense oyster reefs but lost them due to overharvesting and bottom disturbance by trawling. ReVIFES (North Sea Reef Vitalization For Ecosystem Services) aims to restore reefs by developing (1) viable techniques for successful hatchery cultivation and settlement of oysters, and (2) outplacement systems for hard and soft substrates.
Fish hotels
Hard substrate in otherwise bare sediments is known to attract biodiversity. Placing artificial structures can function as sort of 'fish hotels' to provide shelter for various fish. With the help of eDNA sequencing techniques we can get a closer look into studying what types of fish (and other critters) are making use of these hotels.
REEFGLUE
REEFGLUE is a bio-inspired adhesive product to bind oyster shells together, promote settlement of oyster larvae and facilitate natural development of biogenic oyster reefs.
Techniques used & Implications
To study effects of habitat restoration, Marine Animal Ecology performs field monitoring and field, mesocosm and lab experiments. Habitat restoration directly links to ecosystem conservation, which results in higher climate resilience.