Abstract
Severe declines of coral cover in the Caribbean and throughout the world have led scientists and managers to invest significant time and resources into coral restoration. Concurrently, researchers are actively working to identify high-performing coral genotypes to increase the likelihood of survival of restored populations. Staghorn coral is the species most commonly used for reef restoration in the Caribbean. Prior research on this species has documented its growth, calcification, thermal tolerance and disease resistance. However, no prior studies have investigated the species’ capacity for wound healing, which is one of the phenotypic attributes identified as essential for predicting performance of a given genotype within a restoration framework. To address this research gap, we examined the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on the recovery capacity of staghorn coral. We found lesion and colony size both significantly influence healing rate, with both smaller lesions and smaller colony sizes increasing the likelihood of lesion recovery. We also found thermal stress to result in suspension of healing within an experimental setting. Importantly, we uncovered evidence for local adaptation as genotypes sourced from warmer donor reefs recovered more efficiently under heat stress, but found little evidence for relationships between recovery, growth, and tissue parameters such as lipid, chlorophyll, and symbiont densities. Lastly, genotypes demonstrated high variability in healing rates ranging from 0-100% of lesions healed at intermediate time points. These results should encourage restoration practitioners to conduct assisted relocation of colonies from warmer to cooler environments, avoid fragmenting colonies when seawater temperatures near the species’ bleaching threshold, generate smaller lesions, and use colonies from warmer donor reefs during times of thermal stress.