BIO 475 Lecture 16: Coral Disease( guest lecture)
● When corals die, the reef becomes dominated by soft corals, seaweed, and sponges
● Seeing a shift in dominance of functional groups
● Grime’s C-S-R Triangle theory
○ Plants can generally be categorized into different functional groups
■ Competitors
■ Weedy/disturbance handlers
■ Stress tolerant
● Acropora the weakest when it comes to disturbance
○ Disease
■ Weak immune system
○ Predators love them
○ Broken by storm
● Brain Corals/Boulder corals
○ Stress tolerant
○ Grow quickly even though they are big boulder corals ( ex. orbicella)
○ Fast growth
Temperature is acting like a disturbance, more so than stress, fluctuations increases in
temperature
● Weedy
● Porites Astreoides
● Agaricia Fragilis
● Get in quickly after a disturbance
● Reproduce quickly
● Generally have low growth rates
Reef Accretion
● Rate in mm/year
● Type of coral
● Coral Cover
Threat to reefs: what is killing corals?
● Crown of thorn starfish
● Fishing
● Human Interaction/Tourism
○ Sunscreen
● Bleaching
● Disease
○ Dominant driver of coral loss in Caribbean
○ Diseases have become more common and diverse
● White band disease of Caribbean acroporids
○ Staghorn coral
○ Elkhorn Coral
■ Vibro harveyi (possilbe pathogen)
Why have coral diseases become more prevalent and severe
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