SEMINAR: SEFSC Brown-Bag Seminar -TODAY 12pm

[Shannon Calay <Shannon.Calay@noaa.gov>]

You are invited to attend a

SOUTHEAST FISHERIES SCIENCE CENTER
BROWN-BAG SEMINAR

TODAY!
Wednesday December 7th  at  12:00 pm in the Outbuilding Seminar Room

Title: Disease Prevalence and an Assessment of Disease Mitigation Strategies among Staghorn Coral (Acropora cervicornis) in the Florida Keys

Speaker: Kathryn Lohr and Margaret Miller
Affiliation: UM-RSMAS; NOAA Fisheries-SEFSC

Abstract:

Decline in live coral tissue due to disease is an ongoing challenge in coral reef conservation and restoration. In order to better characterize white diseases in South Florida staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis), field surveys were conducted to characterize disease prevalence in the Florida Keys, particularly with regard to differences between wild colonies and artificially outplanted colonies. In addition, experimental mitigation treatments were implemented in order to determine if these treatments are effective in arresting tissue loss associated with the disease state. Results indicate that mean disease prevalence is highly site-specific with some outplant sites displaying severe disease outbreaks and some displaying very little disease.  Prevalence of predation by the corallivorous fireworm, Hermodice carunculata, was also found to correlate positively with disease prevalence. Among all treated colonies, disease mitigation treatments were unable to successfully arrest tissue loss associated with disease. However, when compared separately, a significant difference between treated colonies and control colonies was found for colonies treated when background disease prevalence was low, but not for treatments applied during outbreak conditions.