In situ enhancement of coral larval settlement using acoustic enrichment, engineered habitats and living materials
Abstract Worldwide reef ecosystem degradation is inspiring efforts to enhance in-situ coral larvae settlement onto degraded or artificial reefs. Here we simultaneously test three approaches for enhancing settlement over two weeks in Kāne’ohe Bay, O’ahu, Hawai’i. Nineteen artificial structures, mimicking natural reef mesoscale roughness, were deployed along two transect lines at distances between 1 and 42 m from an “acoustic enrichment” underwater speaker broadcasting healthy reef sound. Twelve additional cinder blocks supporting micro-habitat structures designed to attenuate flow were also deployed at various distances. Some micro-habitats were coated with a living bacteria reef ink (Brink) to further induce larval settlement. Statistical regressions identify Brink presence, structure type, and speaker distance to 20 m as significant factors in predicting coral larval settlement density, but conclusions about acoustic enrichment efficacy are tentative. The cumulative effects of acoustic enrichment, living microbial materials, and custom-designed habitats on enhancing in-situ larval settlement justify further scaled-up reef restoration trials.
Authors
- Van Wishingrad (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6256-4018)
- Nina M. D. Schiettekatte (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1925-3484)
- Christopher P. Jury (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9926-5038)
- Joshua S. Madin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5005-6227)
- Netanel Kramer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5150-0732)
- Benjamin L. Jones (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6058-9692)
- Sid Verma
- Josh Hancock
- Sean H Mahaffey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5562-3980)
- Daniel Wangpraseurt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4834-8981)
- Mert Gökdepe
- Mollie Asbury (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0254-6571)
- Claire E. Bardin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-5099-9486)
- Michael G. Hadfield (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8808-5197)
- Andréa G. Grottoli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6053-9452)
- Shannon Dixon
- Marnie L. Freckelton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6451-6020)
- Jon Chase
- Samapti Kundu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6843-6009)
- Allison M. Klein (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-2670-4222)
- Anna Maria Hill Mikkelsen
- Kristian McDonald
- Jessica Reichert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2245-4188)
- Daniel Schär (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8751-325X)
- Crawford Drury (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8853-416X)
- Carlo Caruso
- Hendrikje Jorissen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5715-3281)
- Stefan Kolle (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2024-9690)
- Kira Morgan Hughes
- Océane Boulais (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3443-3632)
- Natalie Levy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3890-9271)
- Ian Robertson
- Lindsey Badder
- Joshua Levy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2250-9049)
- Brady Halvorson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-8440-549X)
- Alejandro Alvaro
- Alex LeBon
- Aaron M. Thode
- John Yeh
- William Hicks
- Aricia Argyris
- Mark Aruda
- Ayrton Medina-Rodriguez
- Marion Chapeau
- Joshua Kualani
- Richard Argall
- Aaron A. Thode (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-3052-9592)
- Robert Toonen
- Kevin Chun
- Cami Dillon
- Charlotte White
- Samapti Kundu
- Josh Madin
- Madeleine Hardt
- Zhenhua Huang
- Josh Voss
- Christopher Suchocki
- Claire Lewis
Publication Details
- Journal
- Communications Biology
- Published
- 2026-10-08
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-10932-3
- Primary Topic
- Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00