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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Coral Reef Research
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1384534
This article is part of the Research Topic Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease in the Caribbean View all 46 articles

ASSESSMENT OF NUTRIENT AMENDMENTS ON STONY CORAL TISSUE LOSS DISEASE IN SOUTHEAST FLORIDA

Provisionally accepted
Ashley M. Carreiro Ashley M. Carreiro 1*Ryan J. Eckert Ryan J. Eckert 1Alexis B. Sturm Alexis B. Sturm 1Thomas C. Ingalls Thomas C. Ingalls 2Ian R. Combs Ian R. Combs 3Brian K. Walker Brian K. Walker 4Joshua D. Voss Joshua D. Voss 1*
  • 1 Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Florida Atlantic University, Fort Pierce, United States
  • 2 School of Earth and Space Exploration, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States
  • 3 Elizabeth Moore International Center for Coral Reef Research & Restoration, Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, Florida, United States
  • 4 Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, Nova Southeastern University, Dania Beach, Florida, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Florida's coral reefs are facing a multi-year outbreak of stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) with dramatic consequences for coral communities. However, potential anthropogenic and environmental drivers of SCTLD progression and severity remain poorly understood. This study was designed to determine the potential impacts of nutrient amendments on the progression and spread of SCTLD on reefs in Southeast Florida. In situ fertilizer amendments with 30 g of Osmocote TM slow-release fertilizer were used to mimic the effects of agricultural and urban runoff. Fifteen healthy and thirty SCTLD-affected Montastraea cavernosa coral colonies were tagged and divided into three experimental groups: apparently healthy colonies, SCTLD-affected nutrient-amended colonies, and SCTLD-affected control colonies. SCTLD lesion progression, coral tissue loss, and disease prevalence were tracked over a 30-day nutrient amendment period and for an additional 40 days after nutrient amendment removal to determine if there were any latent or recovery effects. Coral tissue loss was tracked over time using Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry and disease prevalence was recorded from diver surveys within a 3-m radius surrounding five centroid colonies from each experimental group. Throughout the experiment, temperature, nutrient concentrations, and SCTLD status of the coral colonies were also monitored. Ultimately, we observed no significant differences in SCTLD progression or surrounding SCTLD prevalence between the nutrient-amended and control groups, suggesting that nutrient amendment had no effect on SCTLD severity during this experiment in Southeast Florida.

    Keywords: SCTLD1, coral disease2, nutrient pollution3, structure-from-motion photogrammetry4, Florida's Coral Reef5

    Received: 09 Feb 2024; Accepted: 09 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Carreiro, Eckert, Sturm, Ingalls, Combs, Walker and Voss. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Ashley M. Carreiro, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Florida Atlantic University, Fort Pierce, United States
    Joshua D. Voss, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Florida Atlantic University, Fort Pierce, United States

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