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PREVALENCE OF TEN CORAL DISEASES IN THE FLORIDA KEYS AND DRY TORTUGAS
Citation:
Santavy, D L., E. Mueller, J. M. Hawkridge, L. G. MacLaughlin, J. W. Porter, AND E. C. Peters. PREVALENCE OF TEN CORAL DISEASES IN THE FLORIDA KEYS AND DRY TORTUGAS. Presented at Assoc. of Marine Lab of the Caribbean, Pa Parguera, Puerto Rico, LaParguera, Puerto Rico, June 24-29,2001.
Description:
Presented at the 30th Scientific Meeting of the Association of Marine Laboratories of the Carribean-AMLC, 24-29 June 2001, University of Puerto Rico, La Parguera, Puerto Rico. 1 p.
More than 14 disease conditions affecting Western Atlantic corals have been reported in the literature, with even more diseases or syndromes reported to affect corals observed in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Few diseases have known etiologies. All of these conditions have been characterized using gross visual signs of abnormalities in the tissue or skeleton of the coral colony. This study determined the percentage of the coral populations affected with each of 10 previously described coral diseases on South Florida reefs. Coral diseases were recorded by disease type and species affected from 1997 to 2000. The surveys were stratified by geographic location and reef type. The geographic locations included: the Upper, Middle, and Lower Keys; the Key West region; New Grounds; and the Dry Tortugas. Reefs were stratified by back reef, fore reef, and transitional reef types. The diseases affecting sea fans and hard corals which were recorded included: black--band disease, red-band disease, aspergillosis, yellow-blotch disease, white-band disease type one, white-band disease type two, dark-spot disease, white pox disease/patchy necrosis, hyperplasia and white plague. The prevalence of diseased and healthy corals varied across the geographic locations and reef type. The greatest amount of disease consistently occurred in the Upper Keys and the Key West study areas. The most common disease condition differed among the stations, varying from aspergillosis in gorgonian-dominated reefs, to white pox on back reefs dominated by Acropora palmata reefs, to white plague affecting the greatest number of species on reefs throughout the Keys.