Ten systems, in teaching order
The ten Action Maps
Preserve what is alive, clean the water, restore populations, build resilience, and create new structure only where the substrate is gone.
Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0
Your progress
10 Action Maps to explore
Start with Action Map 1 and dive deeper. Each Action Map you open unlocks a reef fact.
Progress is saved only in this browser.
- Level 1 · −3 mPreservation & Protection
- Level 2 · −6 mWater Quality & Watersheds
- Level 3 · −9 mCoral Gardening & Nurseries
- Level 4 · −12 mMicrofragmentation & Land-Based Propagation
- Level 5 · −15 mLarval Reseeding & Sexual Restoration
- Level 6 · −18 mAssisted Evolution & Climate-Ready Corals
- Level 7 · −21 mCreating New Reef Systems
- Level 8 · −24 mScience & Monitoring
- Level 9 · −27 mCommunity, Livelihoods & Tourism Done Right
- Level 10 · −30 mPhilippines & the Coral Triangle
Action Maps you’ve opened 0/10
Reef fact 1 · Reef fish at Apo Island
A reserve that feeds a fishery
Long-term studies at Apo and Sumilon islands, Negros Oriental, found that a well-protected marine reserve, where all fishing is banned, benefited nearby local fisheries.
Reef fact 2 · Corals and runoff
Reefs start on land
Extra nutrients, organic particles, murky water and settling sediment from land can each reduce coral growth, reproduction and the arrival of young corals.
Reef fact 3 · Porites cylindrica
The tough finger coral
In UP Marine Science Institute trials on degraded Philippine reefs, transplanted finger coral survived well alone or mixed with other species. Crown-of-thorns starfish and Drupella snails limited results.
Reef fact 4 · Mountainous star coral, Orbicella faveolata
Small pieces, fast growth
Tiny fragments from the same colony spread and fused back together. In one trial this coral added up to 63 cm² of living tissue a month.
Source: Forsman et al. 2015, PeerJ
Reef fact 5 · Acropora tenuis
Baby corals that grew up
About 400,000 coral larvae were added to mesh-covered plots on degraded reefs in the northwestern Philippines. Three years later the young colonies had grown and were spawning.
Reef fact 6 · Corals and heat
Helping corals keep pace
Scientists have proposed speeding up corals’ natural adaptation to heat, and they call for carefully designed experiments and public dialogue before it is used.
Source: van Oppen et al. 2015, PNAS
Reef fact 7 · Baby corals on small concrete blocks
Coral seeds that wedge in
Baby corals (larvae) settled on small four-legged concrete blocks can be wedged into gaps in the reef without gluing each one, making it 5 to 18 times cheaper to plant them on the reef.
Reef fact 8 · Restoration monitoring
Few projects track results past 5 years
A review of 83 coral transplantation studies found that only 5% followed their results for more than five years.
Reef fact 9 · Coral gardening and people
Everyone can garden
Researchers argue that coral gardening can support education and alternative livelihoods, and opens restoration to a wider community of practitioners.
Source: Lirman & Schopmeyer 2016, PeerJ
Reef fact 10 · Philippine shore fishes
Some of the richest reef fish life on Earth
Researchers have described the Philippines as the “center of the center” of marine shore-fish biodiversity.
Source: Carpenter & Springer 2005, Environmental Biology of Fishes
All ten Action Maps
Action Map 1Preservation & Protection
Keep living reefs alive first. No coral nursery can replace a well-guarded area where fishing is banned, or a plan for the next coral bleaching event.
Action Map 2Water Quality & Watersheds
Mud, fertilizer and sewage washing off the land can ruin a coral nursery, so choosing where to restore starts on land.
Action Map 3Coral Gardening & Nurseries
The most common method: grow small pieces of coral in a nursery, then plant them back on the reef, using corals from many different parents and checking on them over time.
Action Map 4Microfragmentation & Land-Based Propagation
Cut slow-growing boulder corals into tiny pieces so they grow and join together faster in tanks on land, then use them to cover dead reef with living coral again.
Action Map 5Larval Reseeding & Sexual Restoration
Collect coral eggs and sperm when corals spawn and raise baby corals, so restored reefs grow from many different parents, not copies of just a few.
Action Map 6Assisted Evolution & Climate-Ready Corals
Help corals survive hotter seas, for example by breeding heat-tolerant corals, moving tougher corals between reefs, or working with the tiny algae that live inside them, only with clear ethics rules, permits and risk checks.
Action Map 7Creating New Reef Systems
When the reef’s rocky base is gone, build new places for coral to grow, such as holding loose rubble in place, steel “reef stars” and mineral-coated metal frames (Biorock), then let nature take over.
Action Map 8Science & Monitoring
If you don’t measure whether corals survive and grow, whether they come from a healthy mix of parents, and whether the reef works again, you can’t know if restoration worked.
Action Map 9Community, Livelihoods & Tourism Done Right
Reefs survive when local people benefit from them, and tourism is set up to protect reefs instead of harming them.
Action Map 10Philippines & the Coral Triangle
Use what works around the world in the Philippines and the Coral Triangle: local species, laws, partners and the work already happening here.