African and Asian Dust: From Desert Soils to Coral Reefs

Abstract

Garrison is a coral reef ecologist; her research focuses on the effects of global-scale processes on coral reef ecosystems in the Caribbean and in the Pacific

Regulation of microbial populations by coral surface mucus and mucus-associated bacteria

“…Sources of potentially invasive microbes were challenged with mucus collected from A. palmata. Potential sources of invasive microbes were chosen based on previous implications to disease causation (Patterson et al 2002, Garrison et al 2003. These sources included Florida Keys canal water, African dust, and water column microbes.…”

“…These include canal water, which is a source of human enteric bacteria such as Serratia marscesens (Patterson et al 2002); African dust, hundreds of millions of tons of which are transported to the Caribbean each year along with associated bacteria, fungi and viruses (Garrison et al 2003); and water column microbes that may become opportunistic under conditions of increased temperature and nutrient load.…”

Ocean–Atmosphere Interactions of Particles

“…The POPs family includes dioxins (polychlorinated dibenzodioxins and dibenzofurans), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and several organochlorine pesticides such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and hexachlorobenzene. It should be pointed out that the POPs composition of dust in air masses changes in relation to modifications in land use, intensity of pesticide use, and burning of synthetic materials and biomass in the dust source regions and in areas swept by dust air masses (Garrison et al 2003). There are few studies of the transport of POPs from Africa to the Mediterranean.…”

Presence of Aspergillus sydowii, a pathogen of gorgonian sea fans in the marine sponge Spongia obscura

“…A well-known example is the fungal epizootic infection of sea fan corals (Gorgonia ventalina) by strains of Aspergillus sydowii (Geiser et al, 1998) that spread throughout the Caribbean Sea during the 1990s (Smith et al, 1996). As many Aspergilli are opportunistic pathogens of stressed and immune-compromised hosts, sea fan aspergillosis may have been facilitated by the combination of environmental conditions (for example, increased hurricane incidence, wind and/or human-conveyed propagules; Garrison et al, 2003), with the presence of fungal strains that are subject to ongoing gene flow between different (and distant) geographic areas (Rypien et al, 2008). Fungi may also reside in the marine environment in latent forms on the host organism or on potential symptomless carriers.…”