Thermal Stress and Coral Cover as Drivers of Coral Disease Outbreaks

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…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Award: 0326705
• AI
  Australian Institute of Marine Science
• NO
  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• UO
  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• NE
  National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service
• CR
  Coral Reef Conservation Program