Monitoring the Efficacy of Reef Restoration Projects: Where Are We and Where Do We Need to Go?

Even under the most favorable conditions, coral growth rates and coral reef recovery following disturbances are slow. For example in the Florida Keys, the coral growth rate has been reported as 0.65 to 4.85 m per 1,000 years,

and most evaluations of the natural recovery process following a moderate disturbance event have reported at least a decade for recovery to predisturbance conditions.