Diego Lirman

University of Miami | UM · Department of Marine Biology & Ecology

Complex reef structure, built via calcium carbonate production by stony corals and other calcifying taxa, supports key ecosystem services. However, the decline in coral cover on reefs of the Florida Reef Tract (US), caused by ocean warming, disease, and other stressors, has led to erosion exceeding accretion, causing net loss of reef framework. Act...

Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) has swept through Florida reefs and caused mass mortality of numerous coral species. In the wake of these losses, efforts are underway to propagate coral species impacted by SCTLD and promote population recovery. However, numerous knowledge gaps must be addressed to effectively grow, outplant, and restore pop...

Rapid acute heat stress assays are increasingly used to assess reef coral heat tolerance and identify resilient corals for research and restoration. However, concerns remain about (1) how representative they are of natural bleaching events, and (2) how reproducible they are in resolving differences in heat tolerance among corals. To address these g...

The ever-increasing need for coral restoration as a tool available to mitigate reef declines and aid in the recovery of lost ecosystem services requires improving restoration performance over time through an adaptive management framework to evaluate the status of restoration programs using uniform, consistent metrics. An evaluation tool, presented...

The field of coral gardening and active restoration has expanded rapidly over the past 2 decades in response to the rapid, global decline of coral reefs. Even with this expansion, the long-term success of coral restoration and ecosystem recovery will still depend on social action to mitigate the local and global stressors plaguing reefs. Rescue a R...

Considering that more than 40 percent of the world's population resides within 100 km of coastal areas [WRI, 2007], the protection of coastal communities is critical. Coral reefs provide a large variety of ecosystem services from fishing, recreation and tourism to coastal flood risk reduction to nearby populations. They act as a green, self-buildin...

Temperate oyster and tropical coral reefs are analogous systems that create habitat for economically, ecologically, and culturally important species, and they provide countless ecosystem services to human coastal communities. Globally, reefs are imperiled by multiple anthropogenic stressors, particularly climate impacts. Using aquaculture to suppor...

Once one of the predominant reef-building corals in the region, Acropora cervicornis is now a focal species of coral restoration efforts in Florida and the western Caribbean. Scientists and restoration practitioners have been independently collecting phenotypic data on genets of A. cervicornis grown in restoration nurseries. While these data are im...

Most reported Diadema antillarum restocking has resulted in low survival and retention. These outcomes challenge conservation and restoration goals. A manipulative study was conducted to evaluate site retention, tandem coral-urchin restoration, and herbivory from 200 adult D. antillarum translocated to five experimental plots off Key Biscayne, Flor...

The incorporation of coral species with massive ( e.g ., boulder, brain) morphologies into reef restoration is critical to sustain biodiversity and increase coral cover on degraded reef ecosystems. However, fragments and colonies of massive corals outplanted in Miami-Dade County, Florida, US, can experience intense predation by fish within the firs...

A primary objective of coral restoration is to foster the development of large, sexually reproductive colonies to reseed degraded reefs. Practitioners of Acropora cervi-cornis restoration favor outplanting large individuals spaced more than 50 cm apart; however, this contrasts with this species' tendency to form high-density thickets with multiple...

Ocean warming is increasing the incidence, scale, and severity of global-scale coral bleaching and mortality, culminating in the third global coral bleaching event that occurred during record marine heatwaves of 2014-2017. While local effects of these events have been widely reported, the global implications remain unknown. Analysis of 15,066 reef...

Given that global warming is the greatest threat to coral reefs, coral restoration projects have expanded worldwide with the goal of replenishing habitats whose reef-building corals succumbed to various stressors. In many cases, however, these efforts will be futile if outplanted corals are unable to withstand warmer oceans and an increased frequen...

Habitat fragmentation of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) transforms the spatial pattern of seascapes by changing both the total area and spatial configuration of the habitat patches. The ecological effects of SAV seascapes are most often assessed using metrics of biological community composition (e.g., species and assemblage changes). We know co...

Severe declines of coral cover in the Caribbean and throughout the world have led scientists and managers to invest in restoring coral reefs and determining which coral phenotypes and genotypes will maximize restoration success. Acropora cervicornis is the species most commonly used by restoration programs in the Caribbean, but only a handful of st...

The rapid loss of reef-building corals owing to ocean warming is driving the development of interventions such as coral propagation and restoration, selective breeding and assisted gene flow. Many of these interventions target naturally heat-tolerant individuals to boost climate resilience, but the challenges of quickly and reliably quantifying hea...

Coral reefs function as submerged breakwaters providing wave mitigation and flood-reduction benefits for coastal communities. Although the wave-reducing capacity of reefs has been associated with wave breaking and friction, studies quantifying the relative contribution by corals are lacking. To fill this gap, a series of experiments was conducted o...

Coral reefs have undergone drastic declines due to anthropogenic and natural disturbances. In response, restoration efforts were developed to recover lost ecosystem services. Restoration in the Caribbean has focused almost exclusively on branching Acropora but declines of corals with massive morphologies highlight the need to develop a multi-specie...

Anthropogenic climate change is the biggest threat to coral reefs, but reef restoration efforts are buying time for these ecosystems. Lesion recovery, which can be a determinant of colony survival, is particularly important for restored species. Here, we evaluate lesion recovery of 18 genets of Acropora cervicornis from Florida reefs with different...

Climate-driven reef decline has prompted the development of next-generation coral conservation strategies, many of which hinge on the movement of adaptive variation across genetic and environmental gradients. This process is limited by our understanding of how genetic and genotypic drivers of coral bleaching will manifest in different environmental...

Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) objectives include the return of more natural salinity regimes to the bays and estuaries of southern Florida (USA). We examined for spatiotemporal patterns in rainwater killifish (Lucania parva) density and size with emphasis on relations with salinity, salinity variation, submerged aquatic vegetatio...

Large (30–45 cm in diameter) corals from three species relocated onto a reef in Miami, Florida, USA, experienced significant predation by parrotfish, with several colonies loosing >50% of their live tissue in less than 2 weeks, representing a major source of mortality for restored corals.

In recent decades, the Florida reef tract has lost over 95% of its coral cover. Although isolated coral assemblages persist, coral restoration programs are attempting to recover local coral populations. Listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, Acropora cervicornis is the most widely targeted coral species for restoration in Florida. Y...

Coral reefs are among the most valuable and vulnerable ecosystems on Earth. Their decline has spurred global interest in efforts to augment native coral populations through coral gardening. As these efforts expand, practitioners are constantly looking for new techniques to reduce costs and increase their restoration footprint. However, commonly emp...

As coral reefs continue to decline globally, coral restoration practitioners have explored various approaches to return coral cover and diversity to decimated reefs. While branching coral species have long been the focus of restoration efforts, the recent development of the microfragmentation coral propagation technique has made it possible to inco...

Reef restoration programs in Florida, US, focused initially on Acropora, but there is now a need to include other species that have also experienced declines. An outplanting experiment using Acropora cervicornis, Montastraea cavernosa, and Orbicella faveolata was conducted to compare performance among species and evaluate the impacts of contact int...

Coastal cities are susceptible to the impacts of waves, flooding, storm surge, and sea-level rise. In response to these threats, coastal jurisdictions have invested in engineered shoreline defenses such as breakwaters and sea walls that are costly to implement and maintain. Thus, there is an increasing recognition that nature-based defenses provide...

Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) communities display complex patch dynamics at seascape scales that are presently poorly understood as most studies of disturbance on SAV habitats have focused on changes in biomass at small, quadrat-level scales. In this study, analyses of remote sensing imagery and population modelling were applied to understand...

In recent years, there has been an increasing recognition that green, nature-based, infrastructure provided by coastal ecosystems, such as coral reefs, can mitigate the impacts of climatic hazards in an efficient and cost effective manner. Coral reefs act as low-crested, submerged breakwaters reducing wave action and thus providing flood reduction...

Macroalgal blooms are becoming an increasing problem in coastal regions worldwide and have been associated with a widespread decline of seagrass habitats. It is critical to measure macroalgal bloom (MB) impacts at broad spatial scales since seagrass seascape characteristics can influence feedback processes that regulate the resilience of seagrass e...

Abstract: In recent years, there has been an increasing recognition that green, nature-based, infrastructure provided by coastal ecosystems, such as coral reefs, can mitigate the impacts of climatic hazards in an efficient and cost effective manner. Coral reefs act as low-crested, submerged breakwaters reducing wave action and thus providing flood...

As coral reefs decline, cryptic sources of resistance and resilience to stress may be increasingly important for the persistence of these communities. Among these sources, inter‐ and intraspecific diversity remain understudied on coral reefs but extensively impact a variety of traits in other ecosystems. We use a combination of field and sequencing...

The Biscayne Bay Coastal Wetlands (BBCW) project of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) aims to reduce point-source freshwater discharges and spread freshwater flow along the mainland shoreline of southern Biscayne Bay. These actions will be taken to approximate conditions in the coastal wetlands and bay that existed prior to const...

Histograms depicting size frequencies (mm CL) of A) all farfantepenaeid shrimps collected, B) those collected north of Black Point, and C), those collected south of Black Point, D) those collected in the dry season, and E) those collected in the wet season. Vertical dashed line in A) separates smaller sizes (to left of line) that were removed from...

Salinity distributional trends of A) mean salinity (ppt) and B) standard deviation of salinity (ppt) across sampling sites across all year-seasons sampled while C) depicts the scatter of salinity mean and standard deviation values as well as the significant correlation trend line between them (TIF)

Ocean acidification (OA) will result in lower calcification rates for numerous marine taxa, including many species of corals which create important reef habitat. Seawater carbonate chemistry fluctuates over cycles ranging from days to seasons, often driven by biological processes such as respiration and photosynthesis. The magnitude of diel fluctua...

Sexual reproduction in scleractinian corals is a critical component of species recovery, fostering population connectivity and enhancing genetic diveristy. The relative contribution of sexual reproduction to both connectivity and diversity in Acropora cervicornis may be variable due to this species’ capacity to reproduce effectively by fragmentatio...

The Biscayne Bay Coastal Wetlands (BBCW) project of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) aims to reduce point-source freshwater discharges and spread freshwater flow along the mainland shoreline of southern Biscayne Bay to approximate conditions in the coastal wetlands and bay that existed prior to construction of canals and water c...

Anthropogenic disturbances in coastal and marine environments have resulted in the transformation of vegetated benthic habitat spatial patterns, which is thought to influence the distribution, community composition, and behavior of marine fauna. In Biscayne Bay, Florida, USA, freshwater discharges into nearshore areas have resulted in the fragmenta...

Accelerating anthropogenic climate change threatens to destroy coral reefs worldwide through the processes of bleaching and disease. These major contributors to coral mortality are both closely linked with thermal stress intensified by anthropogenic climate change. Disease outbreaks typically follow bleaching events, but a direct positive linkage b...

Dataset: Observations of disease and bleaching at different times and statistical analysis on the data

As climate changes, sea surface temperature anomalies that negatively impact coral reef organisms continue to increase in frequency and intensity. Yet, despite widespread coral mortality, genetic diversity remains high even in those coral species listed as threatened. While this is good news in many ways it presents a challenge for the development...

As climate changes, sea surface temperature anomalies that negatively impact coral reef organisms continue to increase in frequency and intensity. Yet, despite widespread coral mortality, genetic diversity remains high even in those coral species listed as threatened. While this is good news in many ways it presents a challenge for the development...

As climate changes, sea surface temperature anomalies that negatively impact coral reef organisms continue to increase in frequency and intensity. Yet, despite widespread coral mortality, genetic diversity remains high even in those coral species listed as threatened. While this is good news in many ways it presents a challenge for the development...

Coral gardening plays an important role in the recovery of depleted populations of threatened Acropora cervicornis in the Caribbean. Over the past decade, high survival coupled with fast growth of in situ nursery corals have allowed practitioners to create healthy and genotypically diverse nursery stocks. Currently, thousands of corals are propagat...

The pink shrimp (Farfantepenaeus duorarum) has been selected as an ecological indicator to assess ecological effects on estuaries of implementation of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan that seeks to restore historical freshwater flows and nearshore salinity regimes in southern Florida. Concern over altered freshwater delivery impacts on...

The abundance of corals has declined significantly over past decades, to the point where several reef-building species in the Caribbean are now listed as threatened. Active reef restoration has expanded exponentially to help recover degraded coral populations and the ecological services associated with healthy and complex reefs. While restoration p...

As climate changes, sea surface temperature anomalies that negatively impact coral reef organisms continue to increase in frequency and intensity. Yet, despite widespread coral mortality, genetic diversity remains high even in those coral species listed as threatened. While this is good news in many ways it presents a challenge for the development...

Threatened Caribbean coral communities can benefit from high-resolution genetic data used to inform management and conservation action. We use Genotyping by Sequencing (GBS) to investigate genetic patterns in the threatened coral, Acropora cervicornis, across the Florida Reef Tract (FRT) and the western Caribbean. Results show extensive population...

The relationship between the coral genotype and the environment is an important area of research in degraded coral reef ecosystems. We used a reciprocal outplanting experiment with 930 corals representing ten genotypes on each of eight reefs to investigate the influence of genotype and the environment on growth and survivorship in the threatened Ca...

Data Deposit. (XLSX)

Supporting Figures and Tables. (PDF)

Supporting Results. (DOCX)

Reef restoration activities have proliferated in response to the need to mitigate coral declines and recover lost reef structure, function, and ecosystem services. Here, we describe the recent shift from costly and complex engineering solutions to recover degraded reef structure to more economical and efficient ecological approaches that focus on r...

manual en espanol sobre la restauracion de Acropora en el Caribe

Background Acropora cervicornis, a threatened, keystone reef-building coral has undergone severe declines (>90 %) throughout the Caribbean. These declines could reduce genetic variation and thus hamper the species’ ability to adapt. Active restoration strategies are a common conservation approach to mitigate species' declines and require genetic da...

Large-scale coral reef restoration is needed to help recover structure and function of degraded coral reef ecosystems and mitigate continued coral declines. In situ coral propagation and reef restoration efforts have scaled up significantly in past decades, particularly for the threatened Caribbean staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis, but little i...

The rapid decline of the staghorn coral Acropora cervicornis throughout the Caribbean prompted the development of coral gardening as a management strategy to restore wild stocks. Given that coral gardening relies on propagating corals collected from wild donor colonies, it is imperative to optimize growth within a nursery to reduce dependence on wi...

Vegetated coastal seascapes exhibit dynamic spatial patterning, some of which is directly linked to human coastal activities. Human activities (e.g. coastal development) have modified freshwater flow to marine environments, resulting in significant changes to submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) communities. Yet, very little is known about the spatia...

Background The drastic decline in the abundance of Caribbean acroporid corals (Acropora cervicornis, A. palmata) has prompted the listing of this genus as threatened as well as the development of a regional propagation and restoration program. Using in situ underwater nurseries, we documented the influence of coral genotype and symbiont identity, c...