Opportunities for Environmental Applications of Marine Biotechnology Proceedings of the October 5-6, 1999, Workshop (2000) / Chapter Skim
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Coral Epidemiology
Coral Epidemiology
Pages 85-95
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From page 85... ...
This statement is supported by numerous observations and reports that indicate increasing numbers and types of coral diseases and disease outbreaks (Hayes and Goreau 1998; Richardson 1998~; intensifying episodes of coral bleaching with a new trend of bleaching-associated coral mortality (Montgomery and Strong 1994; Williams and Bunkley-Williams 1990~; and recently documented, irreversible ecosystem-level shifts from coral dominated to macroalgal-dominated reefs (Done 1992~. Maintaining coral reefs and coral reef health in general is important for numerous compelling reasons.
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From page 86... ...
This discussion provides a summarized review of peer-reviewed results on coral diseases and a summary of anecdotal reports of uncharacterized coral diseases. CORAL DISEASES The four coral diseases characterized to date are aspergillosis, black band disease, plague, and white band disease.
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From page 87... ...
Black band disease on Diploria strigosa. The band consists of a microbial consortium that functions synergistically to generate and maintain a highly structured chemical environment that is toxic to coral tissue.
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From page 88... ...
Plague Plague, also called white plague, is very different from black band disease ~ Figure 2~. There is no obvious microbial population associated with the migrating, tissue-destroying line; rather, there is a sharp demarcation between freshly exposed coral skeleton and apparently healthy coral tissue.
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From page 89... ...
No consistent pathogen has been found for type I White band disease is, to date, one of the most destructive of coral diseases and has killed more than 90% of acroporid corals in the Caribbean region.
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From page 90... ...
To characterize the five coral diseases described above, it was necessary to use different combinations of multiple techniques in an integrative manner. These techniques included oxygen and sulfide sensitive microelectrodes (to measure the chemical structure and chemical dynamics in black band and plague)
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From page 91... ...
Both anecdotally described coral syndromes and peer-reviewed characterizations of coral diseases have been incorporated into three different sets of coral disease identification cards that have been produced and widely distributed in the last 3 years. There is contradiction among individually portrayed (noncharacterized)
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From page 92... ...
Environmental aspects of coral epidemiology are limited, for the most part, to reports of disease incidence and morbidity and mortality rates, which range from infection rates of <1% for black band disease to mortality rates of >95% for aspergillosis and white band disease (Richardson 1998~. There is a known positive correlation between relatively high water temperature and both black
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From page 93... ...
Widely disseminated anecdotal information does not coincide with what is known and published in the peerreviewed literature. The new suite of tools and techniques available in the fields of microbiology, and molecular biology in particular, should be used in an integrative manner for coral disease and syndrome characterization (including defining disease processes)
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From page 94... ...
have been used to document reef topographic changes and bleaching incidents, respectively. The new generation of hyperspectral imaging sensors, which contain an entire spectrum of information in each pixel of an image, will provide optically based quantitative data that will allow assessment of reef health status.
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From page 95... ...
1999 The effect of multiple stressors on the Florida Keys coral reef ecosystem: A landscape hypothesis and a physiological test. Limnol Oceanogr 44:941-949.
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