Coral Diseases in Gulf of México Reefs

Abstract

The potentially catastrophic effects of hard coral diseases and syndromes on the population and community scale have been clearly demonstrated by the widespread demise of key species in the Caribbean region, such as Acropora palmata and A. cervicornis, presumably by white-band disease (Gladfelter 1982; Aronson and Pretch 2001). Other important coral species in the Caribbean, such as those of the Montastraea annularis species complex, have also recently been threatened by a number of diseases and syndromes (Richardson et al. 1998; Santavy et al. 1999; Cervino et al. 2001; Porter et al. 2001). Even the mass mortality of other non-coral species, such as the sea-urchin Diadema antillarum, can also impede the survival and recovery of coral populations affected by other natural catastrophes or human impacts (Hughes 1994; Lessios et al. 1984). Therefore, the ecological importance of diseases is not exclusively dependent on their capability to wipe out entire populations, but to the extent of affecting the community and population dynamics of their hosts, and that of related species. Furthermore, some potentially lethal coral diseases, such as white plague, black band, and yellow band, do not always cause mass mortalities, and some authors consider that environmental deterioration maybe responsible for the spread and morbidity of diseases, both on global (Daszak et al. 2001; Kim and Harvell 2002; Kuta and Richardson 2002) and local scales (Green and Bruckner 2000; Cervino et al. 2001; Porter et al. 2001).