Abstract

Keystone species that helped healthy reefs thrive across the Caribbean were once abundant, but today their long-term survival is threatened unless successful active restoration is applied by assisting their recovery (Lessios, 2015). The grazer Diadema antillarum is a critical herbivore and one such keystone species on coral reefs, keeping algal growth in check when present in healthy populations (Bodmer et al., 2021). However, D. antillarum - also known as the long-spined sea urchin - suffered a massive die-off in the early 1980s (Hylkema et al. 2023), from which local populations in The Bahamas have still not recovered (Lessios, 2015). The drop in their population resulted in a lack of functional reef herbivory and an ecological shift in local reefs, with macroalgae dominating over coral species and a decline in the reef’s ability to provide habitat and other ecosystem services (Bodmer et al., 2021, Williams, 2021).

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