Recruitment hotspots are locations where organisms are added to populations at high rates. On tropical reefs where coral abundance has declined, recruitment hotspots are important because they have the potential to promote population recovery. Around St. John, US Virgin Islands, coral recruitment at five sites revealed a hotspot that has persistent for 14 years. Recruitment created a hotspot in density of juvenile corals that was 600 m southeast of the recruitment hotspot. Neither hotspot led to increased coral cover, thus revealing the stringency of the demographic bottleneck impeding progression of recruits to adult sizes and preventing population growth. Recruitment hotspots in low-density coral populations are valuable targets for conservation and sources of corals for restoration.

招募热点是生物体以高速率添加到种群中的位置。在珊瑚丰度下降的热带珊瑚礁上，补充热点很重要，因为它们有可能促进种群恢复。在美属维尔京群岛圣约翰附近，五个地点的珊瑚补充揭示了一个持续了 14 年的热点。招募在招募热点东南 600 米处创造了一个幼年珊瑚密度热点。这两个热点都没有导致珊瑚覆盖率增加，从而揭示了人口瓶颈的严重性，阻碍了新兵向成年规模的发展并阻止了人口增长。低密度珊瑚种群的招募热点是保护珊瑚的重要目标和恢复珊瑚的来源。