Impacts of “Reef Star” coral restoration on multiple metrics of habitat complexity

• DOI: 10.1111/rec.14263
• Publication Date: 2024-09-17T17:16:34Z
• Authors: Rindah Talitha Vida; Tries B. Razak; Andrew O. M. Mogg; Ronan Roche; Jason Lynch; Ben Williams; ; Cut Aja Gita Alisa; Beginer Subhan; Syamsul B. Agus; Nicholas A. J. Gr...; Timothy A. C. Lamont
• Keywords: Coral reef organizations; Restoration Ecology

Coral reefs face threats from climate change and local pressures that lead to reductions in their physical structure, impacting biodiversity by limiting habitat availability. Despite many efforts actively restore damaged reefs, few projects provide thorough evaluations of success. This study measured the success “Reef Star” method at Mars Reef Restoration Project Indonesia reestablishing structure reef habitats were destroyed blast fishing. We used photogrammetry surveys measure 17 large sites (1000 m 2 each), calculating three complementary measures small‐ large‐scale complexity across degraded, restored, naturally healthy coral reefs. demonstrate restoration have successfully restored small‐scale complexity, as described surface metrics (3.22 ± 0.27 on reefs; 2.85 0.26 reefs) fractal dimension (2.27 0.02 2.24 reefs). demonstrates capacity for recover important ecosystem functions are lost degradation. However, while has delivered some increases compared degraded still exhibit lower values maximum vertical relief than due a lack structures. available might impact fish populations, meaning with limited may only support restricted range functions. Effective strategies must use mixture different methods target recovery structural multiple scales.