Coral disease is now one of the major causes of reef degradation and coral mortality. First reported on reefs in the Florida Keys and Caribbean in the 1970s, black band disease was first recorded in Hawaii in 1994.
USGS scientists are employing microarray technology to characterize microbial communities in diseased and healthy coral species to understand coral disease processes and causes. Microarray technology allows scientists to get a taxonomic overview of the shifts in microbial communities between healthy and diseased corals, between species of corals, and between different geographic areas. Scientists also are comparing methods of preserving environmental DNA samples of corals.
Cooperative Research
Marine Invertebrate Diseases — National Wildlife Health Center Honolulu Field Station
Coral Bleaching and Disease: Effects on Threatened Corals and Reefs — Wetland and Aquatic Research Center
Coral Microbial Ecology — St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center
Select USGS publications related to coral diseases are listed below. For more USGS publications related to coral diseases, use these links:
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New interventions are needed to save coral reefs
Octocoral diseases in a changing ocean
Science to support aquatic animal health
Wound repair in Pocillopora
Emerging coral diseases in Kāne'ohe Bay, O'ahu, Hawai'i (USA): two major disease outbreaks of acute Montipora white syndrome
Effects of Coralliophila violacea on tissue loss in the scleractinian corals Porites spp. depend on host response
First record of black band disease in the Hawaiian archipelago: response, outbreak, status, virulence, and a method of treatment
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- Publications
New interventions are needed to save coral reefs
Since 2014, coral reefs worldwide have been subjected to the most extensive, prolonged and damaging heat wave in recorded history1. Large sections of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR) bleached in response to heat stress in 2016 and 2017 — the first back-to-back event on record. Such severe coral bleaching results in widespread loss of reef habitat and biodiversity. Globally, we are facing catasOctocoral diseases in a changing ocean
Octocorals (Cnidaria, Octocorallia) constitute a geographically widely distributed and common group of marine invertebrates commonly referred to as “soft-corals,” “sea fans,” “horny corals,” “sea feathers,” and “sea plumes.” They are found from shallow coastal habitats to mesophotic and abyssal depths. Octocorals are important members of most Atlantic-Caribbean, Indo-Pacific, and Mediterranean coaScience to support aquatic animal health
Healthy aquatic ecosystems are home to a diversity of plants, invertebrates, fish and wildlife. Aquatic animal populations face unprecedented threats to their health and survival from climate change, water shortages, habitat alteration, invasive species and environmental contaminants. These environmental stressors can directly impact the prevalence and severity of disease in aquatic populations. FWound repair in Pocillopora
Corals routinely lose tissue due to causes ranging from predation to disease. Tissue healing and regeneration are fundamental to the normal functioning of corals, yet we know little about this process. We described the microscopic morphology of wound repair in Pocillopora damicornis. Tissue was removed by airbrushing fragments from three healthy colonies, and these were monitored daily at the grosEmerging coral diseases in Kāne'ohe Bay, O'ahu, Hawai'i (USA): two major disease outbreaks of acute Montipora white syndrome
In March 2010 and January 2012, we documented 2 widespread and severe coral disease outbreaks on reefs throughout Kāne‘ohe Bay, Hawai‘i (USA). The disease, acute Montipora white syndrome (aMWS), manifested as acute and progressive tissue loss on the common reef coral M. capitata. Rapid visual surveys in 2010 revealed 338 aMWS-affected M. capitata colonies with a disease abundance of (mean ± SE) 0.Effects of Coralliophila violacea on tissue loss in the scleractinian corals Porites spp. depend on host response
We investigated interactions between the corallivorous gastropod Coralliophila violacea and its preferred hosts Porites spp. Our objectives were to experimentally determine whether tissue loss could progress in Porites during or after Coralliophila predation on corals with and without tissue loss and to histologically document snail predation. In 64% of feeding scars, tissue regenerated within 3 wFirst record of black band disease in the Hawaiian archipelago: response, outbreak, status, virulence, and a method of treatment
A high number of coral colonies, Montipora spp., with progressive tissue loss were reported from the north shore of Kaua‘i by a member of the Eyes of the Reef volunteer reporting network. The disease has a distinct lesion (semi-circular pattern of tissue loss with an adjacent dark band) that was first observed in Hanalei Bay, Kaua‘i in 2004. The disease, initially termedMontipora banded tissue losA comparison between boat-based and diver-based methods for quantifying coral bleaching
Recent increases in both the frequency and severity of coral bleaching events have spurred numerous surveys to quantify the immediate impacts and monitor the subsequent community response. Most of these efforts utilize conventional diver-based methods, which are inherently time-consuming, expensive, and limited in spatial scope unless they deploy large teams of scientifically-trained divers. In thNine microsatellite loci developed from the octocoral, Paragorgia arborea
Paragorgia arborea, or bubblegum coral, occurs in continental slope habitats worldwide, which are increasingly threatened by human activities such as energy development and fisheries practices. From 101 putative loci screened, nine microsatellite markers were developed from samples taken from Baltimore canyon in the western North Atlantic Ocean. The number of alleles ranged from two to thirteen pe