During the past few years, coral restoration efforts have increased globally (Boström-Einarsson et al., 2020) and across many Caribbean and Latin-American countries (Bayraktarov et al., 2020). Coral restoration has been proposed as a solution to decrease and/or ameliorate the impacts of local and global stressors as a useful tool to preserve reefs, recover populations of reef building corals or both (Calle-Triviño et al., 2018; Bayraktarov et al., 2020; Boström-Einarsson et al., 2020; Goergen et al., 2020; Shaver et al., 2020).

Coral restoration can be done through asexual and sexual propagation and other types of interventions to enhance substrate suitability for outplanted or gardened corals (Boström-Einarsson et al., 2020). While asexual fragmentation can rapidly increase coral tissue coverage, it does not directly increase genetic diversity in coral populations, making threatened populations potentially vulnerable to diseases and environmental stress (Barton et al., 2015). On the other hand, sexual propagation may increase genetic diversity and therefore resilience, however, low recruit survival after seeding to a reef is still a challenge for restoration practitioners (Baums et al., 2019). Regardless of the method or the approach used, restoration programs still face challenges often associated with the problem of scaling up efforts in space and time while preserving genetic diversity of wild coral populations (Boström-Einarsson et al., 2020).

Recent advances on larval enhancement techniques wouldn’t have been possible without the cumulative general knowledge of coral biology and ecology (Guest, 2010; Guest et al., 2014). Reproduction in corals consists of a sequence of events which include gametogenesis, spawning (for spawning species), fertilization, embryogenesis, planulation, dispersal, settlement, and recruitment (e.g., Harrison and Wallace, 1990; Baird et al., 2009; Harrison, 2011). These events have been described from different perspectives, including histological (e.g., Duerden, 1902; Fadlallah, 1983; Szmant, 1986; Richmond and Hunter, 1990; Soong, 1991; Steiner, 1998; Morales, 2006; Ritson-Williams et al., 2009; Weil and Vargas, 2010; Harrison, 2011; Soto and Weil, 2016), observational (e.g., Vermeij et al., 2003; Levitan et al., 2004; Van Woesik et al., 2006; Vize, 2006; Bastidas et al., 2012; Chamberland et al., 2016; Keith et al., 2016; Fogarty and Marhaver, 2019), and experimental (e.g., Morse et al., 1988; Webster et al., 2004; Kuffner et al., 2006, 2007; Nugues and Szmant, 2006; Vermeij et al., 2009; Ritson-Williams et al., 2010; Marhaver et al., 2015; Sharp et al., 2015) studies.

Early attempts to incorporate the concept of larval propagation for restoration purposes started two decades ago (Rinkevich, 1995; Petersen and Tollrian, 2001). In the Caribbean, first successful attempts to rear larvae in the laboratory were conducted by Szmant and Miller (2006) in the Florida Keys and by Randall and Szmant (2009) in Puerto Rico. Currently, Coralium lab at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, SECORE International and the Caribbean Research and Management of Biodiversity (CARMABI) are three leading institutions in the Caribbean on this subject. These institutions have played an important role in expanding larval propagation across geographies, improving capacity building, and developing cutting edge technology and protocols applied for coral restoration (e.g., Marhaver et al., 2015; Chamberland et al., 2016, 2017; Banaszak pers. comm.).

The Dominican Foundation for Marine Studies (FUNDEMAR) has been able to locally adapt these techniques integrating an assisted sexual coral reproduction program, the first one in the Dominican Republic (Calle-Triviño et al., 2018). Here, we provide our perspective explaining the success of FUNDEMAR’s program: (1) a self-sustainable program in alliance with local and international organizations, (2) the design and construction of the first Coral Assisted Reproduction Laboratory in the country, and (3) a clearly defined scalable structure for outcome performance.

In this paper we provide our perspective about a series of guidelines that are needed to implement a sexual propagation restoration program through assisted coral reproduction. We find these 3 points to be essential to create a robust and scalable program: (1) alliances with private and local stakeholders, (2) financial stability, and (3) adoption of novel technology supported by pertinent training to implement them. In our view, the balance between these components allowed FUNDEMAR to build the laboratory and produce results comparable to others in the Caribbean (Chamberland et al., 2016, 2017). Local engagement and key alliances between different stakeholders and the scientific community has been shown to be a strong pillar that supports conservation actions aimed to preserve coastal marine ecosystems (White and Vogt, 2000; Lundquist and Granek, 2005; Reyes-García et al., 2019).

In our perspective, the most valuable lessons learned during the implementation of our sexual propagation program are logistical, technical, and structural. These lessons are often interconnected and must be taken into account holistically as the restoration program is implemented.

From the logistic point of view, getting permits on time is a key step. FUNDEMAR has been able to obtain environmental permits to implement these actions, based on our solid reputation of contributing and supporting the national strategy for coral conservation in the Dominican Republic. Environmental hazards and catastrophes such as hurricanes may impose logistical problems, and in some cases, delay restoration efforts. The best way to cope with the problem is to create an action plan that can be carried out in various seasons and includes more than one species for collection and fertilization as well as diverse cultivation methods to reduce vulnerability to climatic, environmental or unforeseen events, always having a backup plan.

The combination of differing culturing facilities and settlement substrates designs was crucial to increase the production and upscaling the restoration effort. This allowed us to seed a substantial amount of SUs in larger reef areas. The use of the CRIBs represents a feasible strategy for mass production of SUs, nevertheless it is important to consider the local environmental conditions with this method. This type of system works well in relatively calm waters and having an emergency plan for adverse weather conditions is fundamental; in 2019 and 2020, we removed the CRIBs as a hurricane prevention measure, and sheltered the substrates in the laboratory as well as in underwater structures used for preconditioning substrates.

As for the technical lessons, initial time investment in monitoring local spawning events is essential to accurately forecast them, reducing costs in the long term by making time in the field more efficient. This in turn leads to better working plans and therefore a reduction of potential human errors that may compromise the success of gamete collection, fertilization, and culture in the laboratory. Also, the adoption of an experimental design framework and the standardization of protocols to assist coral reproduction is highly recommended. In terms of experimental design, having a clear formulation of hypothesis for the restoration experiment based on the comparison of variables measured in experimental, reference and control plots effectively estimates restoration success (Chapman, 1998; Croquer et al., 2019). Furthermore, sampling efforts should be established a priori based on power analysis.

It is critical to acknowledge that coral restoration by itself is not the solution for preventing local coral reef decline. Instead, coral propagation must be aligned with specific management strategies aimed at reducing local threats such as overfishing, water pollution, unsustainable coastal development and direct physical damage to the reef such as anchoring (Abelson et al., 2020). One of the advantages of FUNDEMAR’s coral restoration approach is the holistic strategy implemented to protect Southeastern Dominican reefs. Though local actions are essential, a coordinated international approach is necessary to reduce global threats to coral reefs such as mass coral bleaching and ocean acidification caused by climate change (Abelson et al., 2020).

To conclude, FUNDEMAR’s coral assisted sexual propagation program has become a robust program due to key alliances entailing the private sector, NGOs and governmental agencies, the engagement of the local community, the creation of job opportunities and training to become coral restoration technicians, and the creation of sources of income that make the program self-sustainable. The program relies on clear missions and objectives and integrates local stakeholders. Finally, the key of a successful and replicable program is to adapt the existing technologies and customize it to the reality of each country, the conditions of the site where it will be implemented and the technical and economic capacity of the institution.

FUNDEMAR is expected to continue growing in the near future and will continue sharing experiences with other NGOs in the Dominican Republic and the Caribbean region. We hope our story will be useful for others to design their programs and to replicate efforts across the region to scale up coral reef restoration efforts.

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

RS-B conceived, designed and coordinated FUNDEMAR’s coral reproduction program, designed and led the Coral Assisted Reproduction Laboratory, acquired funds and resources and performed field work, supervised the data collection and execution of all activities, and contributed equally to the manuscript. MV led data collection, processing and analysis, elaborated the spawning prediction calendars, performed the field work, created figures and tables, and contributed equally to the manuscript. SG-G designed, led, adapted, and improved the construction of the Coral Assisted Reproduction Laboratory, performed field work, trained the technicians for the data collection, supported the creation of figures and tables, and contributed equally to the manuscript. AC contributed to the manuscript conception and structure, performed field work, provided support for the data analysis process, and contributed equally to the manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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