DOI: 10.25923/xndz-h538 Coral Reef Restoration Monitoring Guide Methods to evaluate restoration success from local to ecosystem scales September 2020 NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS NCCOS 279 National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science SUGGESTED CITATION Goergen, E.A., S. Schopmeyer, A.L. Moulding, A. Moura, P. Kramer, and T.S. Viehman. 2020. Coral reef restoration monitoring guide: Methods to evaluate restoration success from local to ecosystem scales. NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS NCCOS 279. Silver Spring, MD. 145 pp. doi: 10.25923/xndz-h538 PHOTOGRAPHY AND FIGURES No photographs or figures from this guide may be used without permission from contributing photographer or author. Cover image credit: Coral Restoration Foundation DISCLAIMER The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this report are those of the authors and they do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of NOAA. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. Coral Reef Restoration Monitoring Guide Methods to evaluate restoration success from local to ecosystem scales Authors Elizabeth A. Goergen Qatar University, Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Doha, Qatar Stephanie Schopmeyer Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, Saint Petersburg, FL, USA Alison L. Moulding NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, Southeast Regional Office, St. Petersburg, FL, USA Amelia Moura Coral Restoration Foundation, Tavernier, FL, USA Patricia Kramer Ocean Research and Education Foundation, Big Pine Key, FL, USA T. Shay Viehman NOAA, National Ocean Service, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Beaufort, NC, USA Contributing Authors Anastazia Banaszak Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Puerto Morelos, Mexico Iliana Baums Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA Andy Bruckner NOAA, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Key West, FL, USA Valérie Chamberland SECORE International, Inc, Curacao A. Kirk Kilfoyle Broward County Environmental Planning and Community Resilience Division, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA Rennie Meyers NOAA Knauss Fellow, Rhode Island SeaGrant, Narragansett, RI, USA Margaret Miller SECORE International, Inc, Miami, FL, USA Michael Nemeth NOAA Fisheries, Restoration Center, Aguadilla, Puerto Rico September 2020 NOAA TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM NOS NCCOS 279 United States Department National Oceanic and National Ocean Service of Commerce Atmospheric Administration Wilbur L. Ross Neil Jacobs Nicole LeBoeuf Secretary Assistant Secretary Assistant Administrator (Acting) About this Document The mission of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is for science, service, and stewardship, specifically to 1) understand and predict changes in climate, weather oceans, and coasts; 2) share that knowledge and information with others; and 3) conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources. The National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) provides federal partners and coastal managers with the information and tools they need to balance society’s environmental, social, and economic goals. NCCOS is the primary coastal science arm within NOAA’s National Ocean Service (NOS). NCCOS works directly with managers, industry, regulators, and scientists to deliver relevant, timely, and accurate scientific information and tools. NCCOS was funded to coordinate the development of this product in partnership with the Coral Restoration Consortium (CRC). The CRC was established in 2017 to foster communication and collaboration among coral restoration specialists, researchers, managers, and educators. The mission of this international group is to promote collaboration and technology transfer among participants, and to facilitate scientific and practical ingenuity to demonstrate that restoration can achieve meaningful results at scales relevant to reefs in their roles of protecting coastlines, supporting fisheries, and serving as economic engines for coastal communities. The CRC is dedicated to scaling up the coral reef restoration, science, and management efforts to enable coral reef ecosystems to persist through the 21st century and beyond. As of 2020, the CRC includes more than 1,800 people globally, and as the need for active coral reef restoration continues to expand around the world, the number of CRC participants continues to increase. The CRC’s Leadership team includes pre-eminent researchers, managers, and practitioners in the field of coral restoration. Core to the function of the CRC is the sharing and dissemination of knowledge in a way that transcends regional and methodological biases. The CRC has developed working groups to deliver guidance on key topics, including field and land-based restoration efforts, coral larval propagation, restoration genetics, monitoring, and resource management. In addition, new CRC working groups continue to form to address emerging topics. The core team of the CRC’s Monitoring Working Group wrote this report. Members of the Monitoring Working Group and other Working Groups also contributed content. This product synthesizes the best available information at the time of publication. We recommend that the CRC Monitoring Working Group update this product as new information continues to develop. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The synthesis provided here is a product of the CRC’s Restoration Monitoring Working Group. The Working Group appreciates the support of the CRC Leadership Team. Development of this report was funded by NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program and NOAA’s NCCOS. Elizabeth Goergen was supported by a National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s Research Associateship with NCCOS during the initial development of this document. All lead authors contributed to the writing and editing of this document and participated in a CRC working group meeting that was supported by the CRC. We appreciate the indispensable assistance of Sarah Hile, Maria Bollinger, and Meghan Balling (CSS, Inc., under contract to NCCOS) in assembling the report and editorial support. We are grateful for the many constructive suggestions and reviews to improve this document. We thank the following individuals for practitioner interviews and/or content reviews. Boston University National Park Service Les Kaufman Meaghan Johnson Coral Restoration Foundation Nova Southeastern University, Coral Reef Restoration, Jessica Levy Assessment, and Monitoring Lab Corales de Paz David Gilliam Phanor Montoya Maya Reef Renewal Bonaire Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute Francesca Virdis Kerry Maxwell The Nature Conservancy John Hunt Aldo Croquer James Cook University Caitlin Lustic Margaux Hein Joseph Pollock Ian Mcleod University of Miami, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Mote Marine Laboratory Atmospheric Science, Rescue a Reef Erich Bartels Diego Lirman Cory Walter University of Rhode Island Shelby Luce Amelia Moore National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Tomma Barnes Kelli O’Donnell Greg Piniak Julia Royster Dana Williams For more information on NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, please visit: https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/ For more information on the CRC and the Monitoring Working Group, please visit: http://crc.reefresilience.org/ Questions and comments on the Guide can be directed to: Elizabeth Goergen or Shay Viehman [email protected] [email protected] Paola Espitia Executive Summary As coral restoration efforts continue to increase in size and Goal-Based Performance Metrics address five major coral number, there is an overwhelming need to define restoration restoration goals: Ecological Restoration, Socioeconomic, Event- success and determine progress towards successful restoration. driven Restoration, Climate Change Adaptation, and Research. Meaningful, consistent, comparable, and quantitative data is Metrics are tailored within each goal to address key components required to quantify the changes that result from restoration of the goal. For example, when monitoring a restoration with an actions. However, there may be many definitions of success ecological goal, a practitioner should evaluate coral condition, depending on the program or project goal(s). Restorations species diversity, habitat quality, and vertebrate and invertebrate can have one or many goals that can be very different (e.g., communities, and potentially others. Metrics are detailed for ecological, educational), and therefore, goals cannot be each goal including key points, suggested methods, reporting addressed in a “one size fits all” monitoring approach. The guidelines, and criteria to evaluate the performance towards the application of quantitative approaches to monitoring not only restoration goal and towards restoration success. provides a reliable way to evaluate progress towards restoration success, but also provides means to identify problems and apply Coral reef restoration, while a quickly growing field, is adaptive management efforts as needed. still relatively new. This document is the first to provide comprehensive guidance for monitoring coral restorations to The CRC established a priority for the Restoration Monitoring evaluate progress towards meeting restoration goals. Metrics Working Group to develop guidance for monitoring coral and associated methods