Abstract
Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) was first observed in Florida in 2014 and has since spread to multiple coral reefs across the wider Caribbean. The northern section of Florida’s Coral Reef has been heavily impacted by this outbreak, with some reefs experiencing as much as a 60% loss of living coral tissue area. We experimentally assessed the effectiveness of two intervention treatments on SCTLD-affected Montastraea cavernosa colonies in situ. Colonies were tagged and divided into three treatment groups: (1) chlorinated epoxy, (2) amoxicillin combined with CoreRx/Ocean Alchemists Base 2B, and (3) untreated controls. The experimental colonies were monitored periodically over 11 months to assess treatment effectiveness by tracking lesion development and overall disease status. The Base 2B plus amoxicillin treatment had a 95% success rate at healing individual disease lesions but did not necessarily prevent treated colonies from developing new lesions over time. Chlorinated epoxy treatments were not significantly different from untreated control colonies, suggesting that chlorinated epoxy treatments are an ineffective intervention technique for SCTLD. The results of this experiment expand management options during coral disease outbreaks and contribute to overall knowledge regarding coral health and disease.
Highlights
Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) was first observed in Florida in 2014 and has since spread to multiple coral reefs across the wider Caribbean
Another study utilized the Base 2B plus amoxicillin treatment on SCTLD-affected corals in situ, albeit without the use of trenches. They observed a similar success rate of 89% observed on M. cavernosa lesions that were treated and tracked over a two month period, along with a 67–91% success rate on four other treated s pecies[54]
While successful demonstration of these techniques is an important development in coral disease research, the issue remains of the feasibility of these methods for in situ use at a larger scale
Summary
Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) was first observed in Florida in 2014 and has since spread to multiple coral reefs across the wider Caribbean. SCTLD is known to affect at least 20 stony coral species and appears to lack the seasonal or temporal fluctuation in incidence and prevalence commonly seen in other coral diseases, relatively few environmental influence studies have been conducted on this newly described d isease[31,32,33] This combination of factors, along with rapid rates of tissue loss and high mortality, has devastated many coral reef communities[15,30,32,34]. Preliminary ex situ trials tested different intervention methods directly on SCTLD-affected coral colonies, employing various iterations of physical barriers, trenching, and dosing with antibiotics or chlorinated a gents[35,36] These trials were conducted with five coral species: Colpophyllia natans, D. stokesii, Meandrina meandrites, Montastraea cavernosa, and Pseudodiploria strigosa. Trials with chlorinated epoxy as a treatment for SCTLD demonstrated some success (58% of individual lesions halted) during the first implementation in the northern section of Florida’s Coral R eef[40]
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