Coral disease hotspots in the Caribbean

Abstract

Abstract. Recent outbreaks of coral diseases in the Caribbean have been linked to increasingly stressful sea-surface temperatures (SSTs). Yet, ocean warming is spatially heterogeneous and therefore has the potential to lead to hotspots of disease activity. Here, we take an epidemiological approach to examine spatial differences in the risk of white-band disease on Acropora spp. and yellow-band disease on Orbicella spp. in the Caribbean. Our analysis involved examining the spatial patterns of disease prevalence, and creating a Bayesian-risk model that tested for regional differences in disease risk. The spatial examination of disease prevalence showed several clusters of white-band disease, including high prevalence in the Turks and Caicos, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Belize, whereas yellow-band disease seemed most prevalent along the Yucatan Peninsula. The Bayesian-risk model showed regional clusters of white-band disease near the southern Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Lesser Antilles, whereas the risk of yellow-band disease was highest in the southern Caribbean. The relative risk of both diseases increased with warmer SSTs. The Bayesian-risk model allowed us to predict where we should expect future outbreaks of coral diseases at a regional scale, and suggests regions where the implementation of disease mitigation plans may be most urgent.

Fine Scale Temporal and Spatial Dynamics of the Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease Outbreak Within the Lower Florida Keys

“…Addressing these questions is essential for mitigating outbreaks, like one of the latest threats, the stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD). Studies of the epizootiology (i.e., disease ecology) of coral diseases are encumbered by similar physical characteristics of multiple diseases (Sutherland et al, 2004;Pollock et al, 2011), species-specific susceptibilities (Williams et al, 2020), environmental influences (Mydlarz et al, 2006;Kaczmarsky and Richardson, 2011;van Woesik and Randall, 2017), difficulties in defining marine pathogens (Ritchie, 2006;Burge et al, 2016), and the large temporal and spatial scales of disease dynamics (Muller and van Woesik, 2012). While the epizootiology of SCTLD has been described on a large scale in the Florida Keys (10-100's of kilometers, Muller et al, 2020), the ecology of this unprecedented disease on a reef scale (among reefs ∼ 1 km and within reefs <10 m)…”

“…As temperatures are increasing in the Florida Keys resulting in near annual high stress events due to climate change (Manzello, 2015), a better understanding of how thermal stress interacts with SCTLD dynamics is needed. Elevated sea surface temperatures and subsequent bleaching are known drivers of several coral diseases and are linked with increased disease severity and related mortality, though may be disease specific (Brandt and McManus, 2009;Cróquer and Weil, 2009;Miller et al, 2009;Muller and van Woesik, 2014;Randall et al, 2014;Randall and van Woesik, 2015;van Woesik and Randall, 2017). Abnormally high temperatures and a severe bleaching event may have led to increased coral susceptibility in 2014 before the SCTLD outbreak began (Precht et al, 2016) and again in 2016 (Walton et al, 2018).…”

Local dynamics of a white syndrome outbreak and changes in the microbial community associated with colonies of the scleractinian brain coral Pseudodiploria strigosa

“…One of the major threats to the persistence of coral reefs are coral diseases. The deterioration of the reef environment mainly due to anthropogenic causes, has resulted in coral disease outbreaks being more frequent and more damaging ( Weil, 2004 ; Van Woesik & Randall, 2017 ). Climate change can further accelerate the occurrence, prevalence, and incidence of coral diseases ( Bruno et al, 2007 ; Harvell et al, 2007 ), causing many reefs to experience a significant reduction in the cover of reef-building species ( De Bakker et al, 2016 ) and the loss of critical functional processes ( Estrada-Saldívar et al, 2019 ).…”

3D Photogrammetry Reveals Dynamics of Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) Lesion Progression Across a Thermal Stress Event

“…The Caribbean is known as a coral disease "hot spot" (Green and Bruckner, 2000) due to its high prevalence of disease occurrence (van Woesik and Randall, 2017). Several of these diseases affect multiple species of coral and can, therefore, have wide ranging impacts on Caribbean coral communities.…”