Eric H. Young

Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Beulig, Alfred

Area of Concentration

General Studies

Abstract

Coral reefs around the world are continually faced with anthropogenic stressors; even the most remote reefs experience the effects of human-caused climate change. As reefs have declined, and awareness of their plight increased, various restoration methods have been attempted by scientists in an attempt to prevent reef collapse. Some of these attempts have been successful, but most efforts to restore reefs have effectively been too little, too late. Scientific grant funding continues to dwindle and ocean conditions are not predicted to improve in the next few decades. This study was conducted to reduce the task faced by restorationists by offering them a new resource on which to draw: marine-aquarium hobbyists, or more commonly, reefers. A preliminary study on reefers’ desire and ability to help scientists in future studies was conducted. A large percentage of reefers would not be likely candidates for participation in a future study, but a smaller portion of the hundreds of thousands of reefers were found be both capable and willing. The findings of this study show a new option for marine scientists studying Acroporid corals, and give suggestions as to how this new resource should be utilized.

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