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Coral diseases that are distributed throughout an area can have a big impact on other parts of reef communities. Not only do coral diseases impact the overall accretion and surface area of the coral, it also affects coral reproduction, the diversity and prosperity of reef species, topography of structures, and community dynamics. [1]
Hawaii's coral reefs (e.g. French Frigate Shoals) are a major factor in Hawaii's $800 million a year marine tourism and are being affected negatively by coral bleaching and increased sea surface temperatures, which in turn leads to coral reef diseases. The first large-scale coral bleaching occurred in 1996 and in 2004 it was found that the sea ...
The degree of susceptibility of a coral, the symptoms, and the rate of progression of the disease vary between species. [3] Due to its rapid spread, high mortality rate, and lack of subsidence, it has been regarded as the deadliest coral disease ever recorded, with wide-ranging implications for the biodiversity of Caribbean coral reefs. [4]
The bluestreak cleaner wrasse is found on coral reefs in the tropics from the Red Sea and Indian Ocean to the western Pacific (including Papua New Guinea, Japan, Fiji, and French Polynesia). [5] It was first recorded from the Kermadec Islands Marine Reserve north of New Zealand in 2015, after researchers examined hundreds of hours of unused ...
Coral reefs are among the more productive and diverse ecosystems on the planet, but one-fifth of them have been lost in recent years due to anthropogenic disturbances. [14] [15] Coral reefs are microbially driven ecosystems that rely on marine microorganisms to retain and recycle nutrients in order to thrive in oligotrophic waters.
Yellow-band disease is a bacterial infection that spreads over coral, causing the discolored bands of pale-yellow or white lesions along the surface of an infected coral colony. The lesions are the locations where the bacteria have killed the coral's symbiotic photosynthetic algae, called zooxanthellae which are a major energy source for the ...
The best known of these are the bluestreak cleaner wrasses of the genus Labroides found on coral reefs in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean. These small fish maintain so-called "cleaning stations" where other fish, known as hosts, will congregate and perform specific movements to attract the attention of the cleaner fish. [ 26 ]
It is now considered the commonest disease of corals in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, especially in warmer or more polluted waters. [3] The spread of the disease across an infected coral has been measured at 2 millimeters (0.079 in) in the Red Sea and 2 to 3 millimeters (0.079 to 0.118 in) around the Great Barrier Reef. [3]