Nearshore bleaching photos - Fiji

Arnfried Antonius arnfried.antonius at univie.ac.at
Sat May 19 11:21:07 EDT 2001


Dear James,

you already got useful suggestions to the Fiji bleaching problem.
Let me add one more:
over at least 2 decades I have observed blue-green algae to trigger 
White Band Disease (e.g. Proc. 4th Int. Coral Reef Symp., 2: 7-14 
(1981).  P.S.Z.N.I: Marine Ecology, 6(3):197-218 (1985).  Proc. 6th 
Int. Cor.Reef Symp.2: 293-298 (1988)).
I think its quite possible that cyanophytes could also play a role in 
bleaching.  Perhaps they can trigger the process, or enhance it when 
conditions are right.  (there is considerable algal overgrowth 
visible in some of your fotos: 1578, 1583, 85, 86, 87, 93, etc.)
Thus, patchiness of occurrence of cyanophytes might account for 
patchiness of bleaching.  In foto 1596, bleaching has apparently (and 
typically!) crept up from the base of the colony where cyanophytes 
lurk. This explains why the center is bleached but the margins not 
(yet).

Very nice photographs you made. Good luck for future work !

Arnfried
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