Sexual reproduction of actively restored gorgonians

• DOI: 10.1111/rec.14339
• Publication Date: 2024-11-11T12:09:04Z
• Authors: Gal·la Edery; Núria Viladrich; Andrea Garí; Maria Montseny; Ignasi Montero‐Serra; Andrea Gori; Cristina Linares
• Keywords: Sexual reproduction

Corals and gorgonians play an important role as ecosystem engineers in many sublittoral communities worldwide. However, coral populations are being increasingly impacted by human activities. Active ecological restoration is a popular conservation tool nowadays, widely used to revert degradation natural populations. Several studies have reported survival growth success actively restored corals, but few studied the long‐term effect of transplantation on reproduction. We investigated sexual reproduction transplanted colonies Mediterranean gorgonian Eunicella singularis up 3 years after recovered from fishery bycatch back their habitat. Three different colony sizes were tested explore possible effects fragmentation Results showed that suffered significant mortality during first 4–5 months (30–35%), independently fragment size. larger fragments high despite other disturbances, bloom ephemerons filamentous algae occurred study. also reproductive capacity negatively affected female colonies. Conversely, male not directly unexpectedly reduced number spermary sacs both control The trade‐off between investment transplants highlights large size could be most appropriate for active E. . This study emphasizes need viability corals indicators success, whose sustained