Journal
CORAL REEFS
Volume 41, Issue 5, Pages 1317-1322Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00338-022-02287-y
Keywords
Mesophotic coral ecosystems; Coral disease; Siderastrea stellata; Montastraea cavernosa; South Atlantic
Categories
Funding
- CAUL
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The prevalence of diseases in Siderastrea stellata colonies was high regardless of depth, but the extent was greater in mesophotic reefs compared to shallow reefs. Co-occurring Montastraea cavernosa showed lower prevalence and extent compared to S. stellata. Diseases affected both shallow and deep reefs, suggesting that management should consider both depth ranges.
Coral reef ecology has advanced in many fields, but disease patterns across depth gradients remain unclear. By comparing the prevalence and extent of bleaching and diseases in 160 colonies of Siderastrea stellata between shallow and mesophotic reefs, we observed that prevalence was high (75%) regardless of depth, but the extent was about two times greater in mesophotic than shallow reefs (14.4% vs. 6.6% of colony area, respectively). Across the shallow reefs, where S. stellata co-occurred with Montastraea cavernosa, M. cavernosa showed lower prevalence (27% of 30 colonies) and extent (1.8% of colony area) compared to S. stellata. Besides bleaching, five coral diseases afflicted S. stellata and two affected M. cavernosa. Because diseases are spread over the entire gradient of depth, any attempt of managing the diseases should consider both shallow and deep reefs to be effective.
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