Enhancing Coral Recruitment

Increasing larval settlement can substantially accelerate coral reef restoration by overcoming a key bottleneck in coral population recovery, since larvae rely on chemical signals from their environment to decide where to settle and metamorphose. We are developing SNAP, a family of nanoparticle–hydrogel coating platforms that capture and slowly release these natural settlement cues from engineered surfaces. SNAP coatings can be loaded with a range of chemical inducers, such as crustose coralline algae (CCA) exometabolites, bacterial lipopolysaccharides (LPS), tetrabromopyrrole (TBP), marine triglycerides, and other recruitment-enhancing chemical compounds, allowing restoration substrates to present the same molecular signposts larvae encounter on a healthy reef. We are testing how these cues, delivered from a stable coating, improve recruitment onto artificial reef structures. By combining materials chemistry with the biology of larval settlement, the SNAP platform aims to make restoration surfaces more welcoming to young corals, supporting faster and more reliable reef recovery.