Environmental and Biotic Drivers of Disease Presence in Floridian and Puerto Rican Coral Reefs
Disciplines
Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology | Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Abstract (300 words maximum)
Question: We investigated environmental factors driving coral biodiversity and disease prevalence in the Florida Keys and Puerto Rico. Coral reefs face numerous threats related to anthropogenic pollution and climate change. Recent disease outbreaks within South Florida populations of stony coral (Cnidaria: Scleractinia) have been the cause of significant concern; however, the causes and factors underlying the spread of these diseases remain little understood. One hypothesis that may explain disease prevalence in these corals is the dilution effect, which states that as host communities become more diverse, pathogen prevalence decreases because pathogens will be less likely to encounter a suitable host.
Hypothesis tested: We tested the hypothesis that disease transmission among coral reefs is affected by coral colony community structure because more diverse communities may have lower disease transmission rates due to the dilution effect.
Methods: We utilized publicly available coral monitoring data in conjunction with data on geographic, climatic, hydrologic, and other environmental variables to examine what factors might contribute to the transmission of these diseases. We used hierarchical Bayesian generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) to account for environmental factors and analyze the effects of species evenness on the likelihood of diseases being present.
Results: Coral status was driven by latitude, bottom rugosity, and depth. Across all coral species, disease prevalence was driven primarily by latitude and coral community evenness within each reef.
Conclusions: Sites with greater species richness and evenness typically had lower disease presence, while sites with lower species richness and evenness were more likely to have diseases present. This finding supports our hypothesis that coral reef diseases among Floridian and Puerto Rican reefs exhibit a host dilution effect. These findings may provide new insight for management practices in these regions.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
CSM - Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Nicholas Green
Environmental and Biotic Drivers of Disease Presence in Floridian and Puerto Rican Coral Reefs
Question: We investigated environmental factors driving coral biodiversity and disease prevalence in the Florida Keys and Puerto Rico. Coral reefs face numerous threats related to anthropogenic pollution and climate change. Recent disease outbreaks within South Florida populations of stony coral (Cnidaria: Scleractinia) have been the cause of significant concern; however, the causes and factors underlying the spread of these diseases remain little understood. One hypothesis that may explain disease prevalence in these corals is the dilution effect, which states that as host communities become more diverse, pathogen prevalence decreases because pathogens will be less likely to encounter a suitable host.
Hypothesis tested: We tested the hypothesis that disease transmission among coral reefs is affected by coral colony community structure because more diverse communities may have lower disease transmission rates due to the dilution effect.
Methods: We utilized publicly available coral monitoring data in conjunction with data on geographic, climatic, hydrologic, and other environmental variables to examine what factors might contribute to the transmission of these diseases. We used hierarchical Bayesian generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) to account for environmental factors and analyze the effects of species evenness on the likelihood of diseases being present.
Results: Coral status was driven by latitude, bottom rugosity, and depth. Across all coral species, disease prevalence was driven primarily by latitude and coral community evenness within each reef.
Conclusions: Sites with greater species richness and evenness typically had lower disease presence, while sites with lower species richness and evenness were more likely to have diseases present. This finding supports our hypothesis that coral reef diseases among Floridian and Puerto Rican reefs exhibit a host dilution effect. These findings may provide new insight for management practices in these regions.