June 2022 Fieldwork Update

In May 2021, we outplanted 300 corals from 6 species to test the novel coralclips in a monsoon environment. Hereby, we were tracking growth and survival of these outplants to see how efficient these clips were. In particular, we wanted to know if there were any species-specific differences.

This was a basic study, but such data have not been recorded before in Peninsula Malaysia. Hence, it was of fundamental significance to record outplanting success data to improve coral restoration protocols and strategies. Much like our nursery phase study (link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/rec.13767), we found that the Indo-Pacific staghorn coral (Acropora muricata) was the worst performer of the six investigated species. Other species were good 'survivalist', but bad 'growers'. 2 species - Acropora florida and Hyndophora rigida - stood out, as being good overall 'performers' (i.e., good growth and high survival).

We aim to survey these corals one more time in October before publishing our results in a scientific journal. But before that, click on this link below to see some beautiful growth of these outplants:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CgB0zLjMnRP/