Ecology of the Black Band Disease Microbial Consortium
Richardson LL, Kuta KG, Schnell S, Carlton RG. 1997. Ecology of the Black Band Disease Microbial Consortium. Pages 597 - 600. In Proceedings from the 8th International Coral Reef Symposium. Proceedings of the International Coral Reef Symposium
Black band disease of scleractinian corals consists of a suite of microorganisms that is directly analogous to microbial mat communities except that it migrates across, and destroys, living coral tissue. We have been characterizing the black band microbial consortium in terms of physiology and motility patterns. The black band microorganisms are finely adapted to each other in terms of generation and maintenance of, and physiological response to, dynamic microgradients of O2 and sulfide. Microbial maintenance of anoxia and sulfide at the base of the consortium is toxic to coral tissue and artificial exposure of coral to sulfide and anoxia in controlled incubations results in coral death similar to that caused by black band disease. Thus the microbial ecology of black band disease may relate to the overall ecology of the disease on the reef in that the microbially mediated chemical microenvironment of black band disease is responsible for coral mortality.
- Type
- Conference Proceeding Paper
- Authors
- Richardson, L; Kuta, K; Schnell, S; Carlton, R
- Units
- SFCN
- Keywords
- Health, Infection, marine ecosystem, Sick, sickness