[CDHC] new paper from Bruno et al
Cheryl Woodley
cheryl.woodley at noaa.gov
Fri Jul 13 19:45:16 EDT 2007
Hi CDHC members,
Here is another paper that you may be interested in
reading......remember we'd like to know about any new papers of your's
coming out so please take advantage of the list serve to post the
citation and abstract...
All the best.
Cheryl
*
PLoS Biology | www.plosbiology.org 0001 June 2007 | Volume 5 | Issue 6 |
e124
open access, available on line
Thermal Stress and Coral Cover as Drivers of Coral Disease Outbreaks*
John F. Bruno, Elizabeth R. Selig, Kenneth S. Casey, Cathie A. Page,
Bette L. Willis, C. Drew Harvell, Hugh Sweatman, Amy M. Melendy
Very little is known about how environmental changes such as increasing
temperature affect disease dynamics in the ocean, especially at large
spatial scales. We asked whether the frequency of warm temperature
anomalies is positively related to the frequency of coral disease across
1,500 km of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. We used a new high
resolution satellite dataset of ocean temperature and 6 y of coral
disease and coral cover data from annual surveys of 48 reefs to answer
this question. We found a highly significant relationship between the
frequencies of warm temperature anomalies and of white syndrome, an
emergent disease, or potentially, a group of diseases, of Pacific
reef-building corals. The effect of temperature was highly dependent on
coral cover because white syndrome outbreaks followed warm years, but
only on high (.50%) cover reefs, suggesting an important role of host
density as a threshold for outbreaks. Our results indicate that the
frequency of temperature anomalies, which is predicted to
increase in most tropical oceans, can increase the susceptibility of
corals to disease, leading to outbreaks where corals are abundant.
--
Cheryl Woodley, Ph.D.
Coral Health and Disease Program
DOC/NOAA/NOS/NCCOS
Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research
Hollings Marine Laboratory
331 Fort Johnson Rd
Charleston, SC 29412
843.762.8862 Phone
843.762.8737 Fax
cheryl.woodley at noaa.gov
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