Publisher : Bulletin of Marine Science
Place of publication :
Publication year : 2005
Thematic : Coral Reef
Language : English
Note
This study involved a detailed documentation of individually tagged, diseased
coral colonies at five reef sites in Dominica, West Indies from 2000 to 2002. At each
reef site, survey areas were selected, and a pivoting line search pattern was used to
identify and tag all scleractinian coral colonies exhibiting white plague (WP), black
band disease (BBD), and dark spots syndrome (DSS) in March, June, and August of
3 yrs. There was an overall trend towards increasing disease incidence, but DSS was
the only coral syndrome/disease that exhibited a significant increase among years.
Conversely, the amount of disease-related tissue mortality (measured in August of
each survey year) decreased each year. Coral diseases resulted in over 8 m2 of coral
tissue death during the 3 yr survey period, and 80% of this mortality was attributed
to WP infections. The coral species affected by diseases varied in each year, thereby
highlighting the need for multi-annual surveys to assess the long-term effects and
management of coral diseases. WP and DSS incidence was significantly correlated
to the relative frequency of the species most commonly affected by each disease/
syndrome, and coral diseases predominantly affected the larger colonies of four
susceptible species: Siderastrea siderea (Ellis and Solander, 1786), Montastraea faveolata
(Ellis and Solander, 1786), Dichocoenia stokesi (Milne, Edwards and Haime,
1848), and Colpophyllia natans (Houttuyn, 1772). DSS progression rates on individual
colonies were low (< 0.4 mm d−1), and both BBD and WP progression rates were
lower than those documented in other published studies. However, the progression
of WP on affected colonies increased with warmer water temperatures. DSS
and BBD infections were relatively persistent on individual colonies throughout the
yearly surveys, while WP was the most short-lived of the three diseases/syndromes.
The re-infection rate of affected colonies between survey years was approximately
25%. Scleractinian coral recruitment rates onto coral skeleton exposed by diseases
were low, and the comparatively high occurrence of bioeroders and algae may have
contributed to the overall degradation of reef structure or caused a shift toward reef
communities dominated by algae.
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Keywords : Sea turtle
Encoded by : Pauline Carmel Joy Eje
