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7874864 
Journal Article 
Coral Transplant Survival Over 3 Years under Different Environmental Conditions at the Hundred Islands, Philippines 
Palomar, MJS; Yap, HT; Gomez, ED 
2009 
0 
Philippine Agriculturist
ISSN: 0031-7454 
92 
2 
143-152 
WOS:000268105100003 
An effort to rehabilitate degraded reef areas involved transplantation of branch fragments of the hard corals Acropora microphthalma, A. echinata, A. abrolhosensis, Montipora foliosa, Pavona cactus and Porites cylindrica (order Scleractinia) from healthy communities to different islands of the Hundred Islands chain in the Philippines. Transplants were cemented directly to rocky substrates. Different species responded differently under varying combinations of water clarity and turbulence, which decreased along a rough gradient from north to south. In the north, Porites cylindrica survived moderately well (30%) after 36 mo compared with Montipora foliosa (17%) and Acropora microphthalma (14%). In the central sector, R cylindrica (57%) and Pavona cactus (41%) survived better than A. echinata (31%). Where turbidity was highest (the south), all transplants fared poorly - P. cylindrica (14 %), A. abrolhosensis (23 %) and P. cactus (5 %). Coral species that survived at the transplant sites were the same ones that dominated some adjacent donor sites. These results have important applications in coral restoration efforts in other tropical regions because the species studied are relatively common. Furthermore, this study is one of only a very few that have monitored responses of coral transplants over several years, thus indicating the potential for success of the method. 
coral restoration; coral transplantation; reef rehabilitation