The escalating rate at which coral communities are declining globally requires urgent intervention and new approaches to reef management to reduce and halt further coral loss. For reef systems with limited natural larval supply, the introduction of large numbers of competent coral larvae directly to natural reef substrata provides a potentially useful approach to replenish adult coral populations. While few experiments have tested this approach, only one experiment has demonstrated its long-term success to date. Given the differences in life-history traits among corals, and different sensitivities of larvae to abiotic and biotic factors, coupled with the dynamic nature of post-settlement survivorship and recruitment processes, trials of the larval enhancement technique with larvae of different coral species are needed to test the broader applicability and viability of this approach. Accordingly, in this paper we examine the applicability of the larval enhancement technique to restore a population of Acropora loripes in the Bolinao-Anda Reef Complex, Pangasinan, northwestern Philippines. Larvae were cultured ex situ following spawning of collected A. loripes colonies in June 2014. Competent larvae were transported to degraded reef areas and approximately 300,000 larvae were introduced in each of three 6 × 4 m plots directly on the reef. Fine mesh enclosures retained the larvae inside each treatment plot for five days. Three adjacent 6 × 4 m plots that served as controls were also covered with mesh enclosures, but no larvae were introduced. Each plot contained ten 10 × 10 cm conditioned settlement tiles cut from dead tabulate Acropora that were used to quantify initial larval settlement. After allowing larval settlement for five days, mean settlement on tiles from the larval enhancement plots that were monitored under stereomicroscopes was significantly higher (27.8 ± 6.7 spat per tile) than in control plots, in which not a single recruit was recorded. Post-settlement survivorship and growth of spat and coral recruits on tiles and reef substrata inside the experimental plots were monitored periodically for 35 months. After 35 months, the mean size of each of the remaining 47 A. loripes coral colonies surviving on the reef substrata was 438.1 ± 5.4 cm³, with a mean diameter of 7.9 ± 0.6 cm. The average production cost for each of the surviving A. loripes colonies at 35 months was USD 35.20. These colonies are expected to spawn and contribute to the natural larval pool when they become reproductively mature, thereby enhancing natural coral recovery in the area. This study demonstrates that mass coral larval enhancement can be successfully used for restoring populations of coral species with different life-history traits, and the techniques can rapidly increase larval recruitment rates on degraded reef areas, hence catalysing the regeneration of declining coral populations.

全球珊瑚种群数量下降的速度不断加快，这需要紧急干预和采取新的珊瑚礁管理方法来减少和阻止进一步的珊瑚流失。对于天然幼虫供应有限的礁石系统，将大量有能力的幼虫直接引入天然礁石基质提供了补充成年珊瑚种群的潜在有用方法。尽管很少有实验测试过这种方法，但迄今为止只有一个实验证明了其长期成功。考虑到珊瑚之间生活史特征的差异，以及幼虫对非生物和生物因素的敏感性不同，以及定居后存活和募集过程的动态性质，为了测试这种方法的广泛适用性和可行性，需要对不同珊瑚物种的幼虫进行幼虫增强技术的试验。因此，在本文中，我们研究了幼虫增强技术在恢复种群数量方面的适用性。菲律宾西北部Pangasinan的Bolinao-Anda礁复合体中的凤梨。幼虫在收集到的A产卵后异位培养。于2014年6月被捕捞。成熟的幼体被运送到退化的礁区，并且在礁上直接分布的三个6×4 m地块中，每个约有300,000幼体被引入。细网罩将幼虫在每个处理区中保留五天。3个相邻的6×4 m样地作为对照，也被网状围栏覆盖，但未引入幼体。每块地块都包含十块从死板状Acropora切下的10×10 cm条件沉降砖用来量化最初的幼虫沉降。允许幼虫沉降5天后，在立体显微镜下监测的幼虫增强区的地砖平均沉降显着高于对照地块（记录每只新兵），平均沉降（每瓦27.8±6.7吐）。定期监测实验地块内瓷砖和礁石基底上的沉降和残骸的存活情况，并定期监测35角和珊瑚新生的生长，持续35个月。35个月后，其余47 A的平均大小。存活在礁石基底层上的独眼巨人珊瑚群落为438.1±5.4 cm ³，平均直径为7.9±0.6 cm。每个幸存的A的平均生产成本。loripes殖民地在35个月的价格是35.20美元。这些菌落在繁殖成熟时有望产卵并促进其天然幼体池，从而促进该地区天然珊瑚的恢复。这项研究表明，大规模的珊瑚幼虫增强可以成功地用于恢复具有不同生活史特征的珊瑚物种种群，并且该技术可以迅速提高退化珊瑚礁区域的幼体募集率，从而促进了珊瑚种群数量的减少。