Poor water quality and excessive algal growth in some areas hampered recovery even when coral larvae were available ( Goreau, 1998). For an overview of best practices for the management of dredging operations near coral reefs, reference is made to the recent PIANC report No. 108

(PIANC, 2010). Setting realistic and ecologically meaningful thresholds for model interrogation, as permit conditions to dredging contractors and for use as triggers in a reactive monitoring and management program, can BMS-387032 nmr be a challenge in coral reef environments. One of the problems encountered when trying to determine realistic thresholds for dredging near coral reefs includes a lack of knowledge, since only 10% of coral Palbociclib order species has ever been studied with respect to their response to sediment disturbance. There is still a rather poor understanding of the relationship between sediment stress and the response of most corals. While meaningful sets of thresholds or criteria would ideally have to incorporate the intensity, duration and frequency of turbidity (or sedimentation) events generated by the dredging activities, actual values are difficult to determine with confidence and at present remain little more than estimates.

In some cases, uncertainties in model predictions of dredging plumes and a conservative approach by regulators applying the precautionary principle may have led to overestimation of impacts of dredging operations on corals while field monitoring suggested less coral mortality than predicted (Hanley, 2011). In other cases, the opposite situation may have led to unnecessary and avoidable damage on coral reefs. To prevent coral mortality, there is clearly a need for reliable sublethal coral health indicators as early warning for stress but the science for this is still in its infancy (Jameson et al., 1998, Vargas-Angel et al., 2006, Cooper and Fabricius, Selleckchem MK-3475 2007 and Cooper et al., 2009). Such bio-indicators, some of which can show remarkable temporal dynamics in response

to variations in water quality (Cooper et al., 2008), require on-site validation before use in monitoring programs (Fichez et al., 2005). Recently, some significant advances have been made in establishing reactive (feedback) monitoring programs that have proven a meaningful tool for minimising coral mortality during large-scale dredging operations in Singapore and Australia (Koskela et al., 2002, Doorn-Groen, 2007 and Sofonia and Unsworth, 2010). The design of such monitoring programs should guarantee sufficient statistical power to detect a required effect size, which can be as much a challenge as the availability of suitable reference sites. Seasonal restrictions during mass coral spawning are sometimes placed on dredging programs, but the effectiveness of such mitigating measures on long-term coral reef resilience is not well understood.