Coral Disease: Direct and Indirect Agents, Mechanisms of Disease, and Innovations for Increasing Resistance and Resilience

Abstract

As climate change drives health declines of tropical reef species, diseases are further eroding ecosystem function and habitat resilience. Coral disease impacts many areas around the world, removing some foundation species to recorded low levels and thwarting worldwide efforts to restore reefs. What we know about coral disease processes remains insufficient to overcome many current challenges in reef conservation, yet cumulative research and management practices are revealing new disease agents (including bacteria, viruses, and eukaryotes), genetic host disease resistance factors, and innovative methods to prevent and mitigate epizootic events (probiotics, antibiotics, and disease resistance breeding programs). The recent outbreak of stony coral tissue loss disease across the Caribbean has reenergized and mobilized the research community to think bigger and do more. This review therefore focuses largely on novel emerging insights into the causes and mechanisms of coral disease and their applications to coral restoration and conservation.

Keywords: bacteria; ciliate; climate; disease; health; immune response; reefs; scleractinian; syndrome; virus.