Disease
Coral Disease
Dark Spots Disease (in depth)
- Relevant in the Florida Keys and wider Caribbean
- Affected areas are dark purple, gray or brown
- circular or irregular in shape scattered on surface of a colony or at colony's margin
- discolored area increases in size and radiates outward as affected area dies
- Darkened polyps are often depressed and appear smaller in size
- Popular on S. siderea (massive starlet coral), blushing star coral, and M. annularis
Black Band Disease
- Characterized by blackish concentric/crescent-shaped band (given by photosynthetic pigment of the dominant cyanobacteria)
- Consumes live coral tissue as it passes over colony surface
- Caused primarily by cyanobacteria along with sulfide-oxidizing and sulfur-reducing bacteria
- Most commonly affects massive reef-building corals all over the world
- Leaves behind bleached coral
Red band disease
- Narrow bands of filamentous cyanobacteria
- First type, RBD-1, closely resembles BBD except that bands are maroon in color
- Second type, RBD-2, has cyanobacterial filaments spread like a net over colony's surface
- Microbial mat is easily dislodged from surface of coral tissue
- Affects massive and plating stony corals, and also sea fans throughout the wider Caribbean
- Leaves behind bleached coral
White Band Disease
- Extensive occurrence in the Caribbean
- Effects Elkhorn and Staghorn Coral
- Tissue Peels off the coral starting at the base causing thick white bands of bleached coral
- Presumed bacterial infection that affects the Genus Acropora
- Pathogen unknown but leaves behind brittle coral skeleton
- One of the only diseases known to cause major changes in structural composition of reefs
- After tissue peels away skeleton is weakened by bioerosion
White Plague Disease
Yellow Blotch Disease
- Occurs in the Florida Keys and Caribbean
- Sections of corals become yellowed and translucent
- Cause unknown
- Disease spreads outward and the tissue in the center dies
- Mostly affects large boulder star corals
- Tissue left behind the band are usually covered in coralline algae
References
“Major Reef-building Coral Diseases.” CoRIS - Coral Reef Information System. NOAA, 01-17-13. Web. 2-26-13. <http://coris.noaa.gov/about/diseases/#red band>.
Gochfield, Deborah, Julie Olson, and Marc Slattery. “Colony Versus Population Variation in Susceptibility and Resistance to Dark Spot Syndrome in the Caribbean Coral Siderastrea Siderea.” Diseases of Aquatic Organisms 69 (2006): 53–65. Inter-Research. Web. 02-26-13. <http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/dao/v69/n1/>.
Gil-Agudelo, D.L. and J. Garzón-Ferreira 2001. Spatial and seasonal variation of dark spots disease in coral communities of the Santa Marta area (Columbian Caribbean). Bull Mar. Sci. 69:619-630
Green, E. and A. W. Bruckner. 2000. The significance of coral disease epizootiology for coral reef conservation. Biological Conservation 96:347-361.