Occurrence of coral diseases at Akajima, Okinawa, Japan in 2010 and 2011

Four-Year Field Survey of Black Band Disease and Skeletal Growth Anomalies in Encrusting Montipora spp. Corals around Sesoko Island, Okinawa

“…Diseases in the marine ecosystem affect various organisms [1] among which diseases affecting the zooxanthellate scleractinian corals have received increased attention due to their link to the global decline of the coral reef ecosystems [2]. Although massive forms of reef-building corals like are among the most susceptible in terms of numbers of disease [2], several studies have highlighted the fragility of the genus Montipora to various diseases [3][4][5][6][7]. Montipora is a speciose genus of zooxanthellate scleractinian coral with a wide range of morphotypes including submassive, laminar, encrusting, and branching colonies, and is common on many Indo-Pacific coral reefs [8,9].…”

“…Around the Indian subcontinent colonies have been severely affected by Montipora White Syndrome [19,20], and Terpios sponge/Black Disease (BD) [21]. In the Japanese Archipelago, SEB, BBD, GAs, and Terpios sponge/BD on Montipora have been reported [3,5,7,22]. Among these diseases, BBD is known to be virulent in nature and observed to cause mortality at high rates in infected coral colonies [4,5,23], while GAs alter biological functions of their host by affecting skeletal properties [3].…”

“…In the Japanese Archipelago, SEB, BBD, GAs, and Terpios sponge/BD on Montipora have been reported [3,5,7,22]. Among these diseases, BBD is known to be virulent in nature and observed to cause mortality at high rates in infected coral colonies [4,5,23], while GAs alter biological functions of their host by affecting skeletal properties [3]. In Okinawa, southern Japan, cases of BBD were reported initially from Sekisei Lagoon [24,25], and later from Akajima, Kerama and Sesoko reefs [5,22,26].…”

“…Among these diseases, BBD is known to be virulent in nature and observed to cause mortality at high rates in infected coral colonies [4,5,23], while GAs alter biological functions of their host by affecting skeletal properties [3]. In Okinawa, southern Japan, cases of BBD were reported initially from Sekisei Lagoon [24,25], and later from Akajima, Kerama and Sesoko reefs [5,22,26]. Similarly, GAs in Japan were first observed from Sesoko reefs [3], and subsequently reported from other nearby areas [27][28][29][30].…”

“…Within the Ryukyu Archipelago, the filamentous cyanobacteria Roseofilum reptotaenium has been recently reported [36]. BBD is not host-specific, but in Okinawan waters has been shown to be more common on genus Montipora than other corals (e.g., [5]).…”