the ecology of ‘acroporid white syndrome, a coral disease from the southern great barrier reef的生态u201cacroporid白色综合症u201d,来自南部大堡礁珊瑚疾病.pdfVIP

The Ecology of ‘Acroporid White Syndrome’, a Coral Disease from the Southern Great Barrier Reef 1,2 2 3,4 1,2 2 George Roff *, E. Charlotte E. Kvennefors , Maoz Fine , Juan Ortiz , Joanne E. Davy , Ove Hoegh- Guldberg2,5 1 School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia, 2 ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia, 3 The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel, 4 The Interuniversity Institute for Marine Science, Eilat, Israel, 5 Global Change Institute, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia Abstract Outbreaks of coral disease have increased worldwide over the last few decades. Despite this, remarkably little is known about the ecology of disease in the Indo-Pacific Region. Here we report the spatiotemporal dynamics of a coral disease termed ‘Acroporid white syndrome’ observed to affect tabular corals of the genus Acropora on the southern Great Barrier Reef. The syndrome is characterised by rapid tissue loss initiating in the basal margins of colonies, and manifests as a distinct lesion boundary between apparently healthy tissue and exposed white skeleton. Surveys of eight sites around Heron Reef in 2004 revealed a mean prevalence of 8.160.9%, affecting the three common species (Acropora cytherea, A. hyacinthus, A. clathrata) and nine other tabular Acropora spp. While all sizes of colonies were affected, white syndrome disproportionately affected larger colonies of tabular Acroporids (.80 cm). The prevalence of white syndrome was strongly related to the abundance of tabular Acroporids within transects, yet the incidence of the