Abstract
Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) has persisted since 2014 in the Southeast Florida Coral Reef Ecosystem Conservation Area (Coral ECA) where it was first discovered. Most of the highly susceptible corals have perished, leaving Montastraea cavernosa as the most abundant reef-building species with high SCTLD prevalence. Disease interventions (DI) have been conducted throughout Florida’s Coral Reef to save the remaining corals and reduce the disease prevalence with varying degrees of success. The two main treatments were chlorinated (Chl) epoxy and an antibiotic paste. The antibiotic paste was highly effective in the Florida Keys, but its effectiveness in the Coral ECA was questionable. Therefore, we compared the effectiveness of the antibiotic paste and Chl epoxy treatments on M. cavernosa to optimize DI efforts on this species in the Coral ECA. Significant differences were found between the treatment materials and applications related to the proportion of quiesced lesions and corals where antibiotic paste (91.2% success) outperformed Chl epoxy (20% success). By day 351, 50.6% of the antibiotic paste disease-break tissue was fully healed compared to 2.2% of the total Chl epoxy-filled disease-break area. During the study, new lesions occurred on previously treated colonies, as well as colonies not previously treated and new lesion rates varied through time, indicating revisitation is necessary to eliminate disease. Most margin treatments failed within the first 9 days, however, most disease-breaks failed before 44 days. Considering the high treatment success of the antibiotic paste and the conditional variation of new lesion rates, about 1 month is a good practical re-visitation time for retreating failures and any new lesions. DI using antibiotic paste is currently the most effective way to intervene the SCTLD epidemic, but this is only effective as a stopgap measure while the larger causative agents are identified and remediated. Conducting DI at a reef-scape scale is time consuming and requires extensive person-power and resources, making it very expensive. But this expense pales in comparison to the current cost to restore the diversity and live tissue saved with DI. This method also comes with the risk of introducing antibiotics into coral reef environments, which may have unintended outcomes.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 666224 |
| Journal | Frontiers In Marine Science |
| Volume | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 2 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© Copyright © 2021 Walker, Turner, Noren, Buckley and Pitts.
Funding
Funding was provided by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection Award No. B558F2. The views, statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the State of Florida or any of its sub-agencies. We thank the Florida Department of Environmental Protection?s Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection (DEP RCP) for funding support. We thank the Florida Coral Disease Advisory Committee for the large number of volunteers assisting in the meeting and planning of coral disease efforts. This work was conducted under the State of Florida Special Activity License Permit SAL-19-2022A-SRP. We thank the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Lisa Gregg for assisting with permitting. We thank the DEP RCP staff including Kristi Kerrigan for contract and project coordination. We thank to Elizabeth Fromuth and Kristin Anderson at the NSU GIS and Spatial Ecology lab. Funding. Funding was provided by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection Award No. B558F2. The views, statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the State of Florida or any of its sub-agencies.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Florida Coral Disease Advisory Committee | |
| Florida Department of Environmental Protection | B558F2 |
| Florida Special Activity License Permit SAL-19-2022A-SRP | |
| Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission | |
| Nova Southeastern University |
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- Water Science and Technology
- Environmental Science (miscellaneous)
- Ocean Engineering
- Aquatic Science
- Oceanography
- Global and Planetary Change
Keywords
- amoxicillin
- coral antibiotics
- coral disease intervention
- florida’s coral reef
- southeast florida coral reef ecosystem conservation area
- tissue loss disease
- white plague
- white syndrome