Donor Colony

A wild or managed coral colony from which fragments are cut. Also called a mother colony in the methodology — the field science term used by the restoration team.

Selection criteria: Only completely healthy colonies are selected as donors. They must be old enough to have survived many years of disturbance. Colonies are selected to represent the species, functional group, and morphological diversity of the local reference site.

Fragmentation rules:

• A maximum of 10% of any mother colony may be fragmented
• A 10% subset of mother colonies is monitored at 6 months and 1 year post-fragmentation to track wound healing

The health of donor colonies directly affects the genetic diversity of propagated fragments — a stressed donor colony produces lower-quality fragments and narrows the genetic pool.

Why donor origin matters: Tracking the donor for every fragment feeds the mother-colony variant of the Shannon Diversity Index. Too many fragments from one donor produces a genetically fragile restoration.

See also: Fragment, Taxon, Shannon Diversity