Selena Anne-Marie Johnson Erin O. Lyons Jason Spadaro Anastasios Stathakopoulos Sierra Kathleen Bloomer Jennifer Mallon Connor Monroe Jenkins Sara D. Williams Ian Combs Zachary Craig Erinn Muller Lauren T. Toth 2025 <p><span>Coral-reef degradation is disrupting the balance between reef accretion and erosion and threatening the persistence of essential coral-reef habitats. In south Florida, most reefs are already net eroding, and without intervention, valuable ecosystem services may be lost. Coral restoration holds the potential to reverse those trends; however, typical restoration monitoring does not adequately capture key geo-ecological functions. We addressed this knowledge gap using carbonate budgets and Structure-from-Motion models to evaluate the impact of coral restoration on reef-accretion potential and structural complexity at eight offshore and three inshore coral reefs in the Lower Florida Keys. Within 2–6 years following outplanting, restoration of rapidly growing&nbsp;</span><i>A. cervicornis</i><span>&nbsp;populations increased reef-accretion potential to 2.8&nbsp;mm y</span>^− 1<span>&nbsp;and drove significant increases in structural complexity. There was no measurable impact of restoring slower-growing, massive corals on reef-accretion potential inshore; however, whereas the severe 2023 coral-bleaching event immediately following our study caused near-complete mortality of&nbsp;</span><i>A. cervicornis</i><span>, 59% of massive corals survived, highlighting potential trade-offs between coral growth and survival on future restoration efficacy. We conclude that although restoration can produce rapid, small-scale increases in reef-accretion potential, there remain important uncertainties about how and whether ecosystem-scale benefits of restoration on important geo-ecological reef functions can persist long term.</span></p> application/pdf 10.1038/s41598-025-04818-3 en Springer Nature Coral restoration can drive rapid increases in reef accretion potential article