We Monitor
Once the coral has been successfully secured to the reef, where it will spend the rest of it’s life and eventually reproduce, we go into the third phase of the ADE process: monitoring the growth.
This is where the scientists and team managers play a key role in monitoring and record the success and growth of the newly placed corals. Since some species of coral can grow up to 11 – 15 cm (4 – 6 inches) per year, it is very important to get the spacing right and not to introduce territorial conflict too soon.
We are always careful to choose sites that have been damaged by human impact or storms or depleted by bleaching in order to have a measurable impact allowing our team to monitor the growth over time.
Once the newly planted corals reach their reproduction cycle after about 2 – 3 years, our monitoring tasks take on an additional role: to monitor the settlement of the spawn and record the data. This data will include very important and useful information including the number of successful settlements within a designated transect, mix of coral species, selective substrate comparisons, and resilience to climate change. This information will be instrumental in guiding future coral reef restoration and advance the marine study by creating an open platform for scientist.
10 year study by Dr. Bruce Carlson monitoring the same reef
Dr. Bruce Carlson has spent a lot of time in Fiji over the past 30 years. His expertise in monitoring the conditions on the reef follow a high level of professional protocol. In this 10 year study that he has conducted (monitored) on the same reef clearly shows the resilience of coral under stress and changing conditions. Through this monitoring the evolution of this particular reef is an amazing thing to watch. When you consider how many reefs the ADE Project is touching a positive outcome is undeniable. We thank Dr. Carlson for the use of this beautiful film.