Caribbean outbreak in Caribbean kills up to 94 percent of some coral species in what researchers say could become the ‘deadliest’ [such] There was never any unrest “in the area, according to findings released on Thursday. The disease of stony coral tissue loss, first reported off the coast of Florida in 2014, has spread rapidly, spreading across the Caribbean. The water-borne disease, the researchers say, is likely to be exacerbated by coastal development and climate change – and human intervention may be needed to prevent the extinction of certain species throughout the region. Marine ecologist and researcher Lorenzo vlvarez-Filip and his colleagues surveyed dozens of sites in the Mexican Caribbean in 2016 and 2017, before the outbreak, and after its onset, in 2018 to 2020. They found what they described as “unprecedented coral loss,” according to a new study published in the journal Communications Biology, which shows the extent of the problem. Of the more than 29,000 coral colonies assessed in the Caribbean region of Mexico since the outbreak began, 17 percent were dead and 10 percent were infected. It is a “very aggressive” disease, vlvarez-Filip told The Washington Post, adding that once a coral is infected, it can die within weeks or even days. The living tissue of infected corals begins to decompose, sometimes losing color. Of the 48 recorded coral species in the area, more than 20 were affected – with varying mortality rates, some as high as 94 percent. The disease has been found to affect many species that are important builders in the ecosystem – threatening the ability of corals, which are animals, to build reefs, provide habitat for other organisms, offer coastal protection and promote tourism. While the disease is relentless and its origin is not fully established, one key finding is that humans could make things worse: More corals appeared to get sick near coastal development areas – around urban areas, hotels and tourist spots with pollution and runoff. said vlvarez-Filip. Give an example: If you go to a hospital where the underlying conditions are good, you are more likely to recover. For reefs, pollution is a complex problem, making diseases more difficult. “The problem is that everything is changing,” said vlvarez-Filip. Robert H. Richmond, director and professor of research at the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Kewalo Marine Laboratory, said the area, including the Caribbean, Florida and Mexico coasts, had recently experienced a “triple blow”: powerful hurricanes that could to overturn or drown corals, coral bleaching associated with climate change and high seawater temperatures and now the spread of disease. “It was a kind of insult and injury beyond insult and injury,” he said. “It has led these coral reefs and populations to a point where they are no longer able to sustain themselves. … They have been decimated. And it’s a kind of downhill spiral. “ Corals, Richmond said, require sufficient density to lay their elegant eggs once a year, resulting from the lunar cycle. At the same time, they release eggs and sperm – gametes – into the water. As the corals can not move, their gametes float on the surface of the water, are fertilized and then fall back to begin to grow into new corals. “As corals die and the distance between living colonies increases, the chances of success of spawning events decrease dramatically,” Richmond said. The populations of some species are so low that their ability to reproduce is so threatened by changing environmental factors, including the quality of water – which suffers from a “gallery of rogue chemicals” from sewers – where there is little hope of recovery. human intervention, he said. Although it would be difficult to stop the spread of the contagious disease, vlvarez-Filip said efforts were under way – including reef recovery, preservation of genetic material and the provision of probiotics to increase resistance. But “these efforts will only succeed if we change the regional conditions,” Álvarez-Filip said. “We can invest a lot of effort, a lot of money to try to save and restore the corals,” he said. “But in the end, if we still have climate change, we still have deforestation. we still have pollution “. Coral health can be likened to that of a bank account, with live corals as the main asset and interest reproduction, Richmond said. “If you put corals back in a poor quality water area next to an urban area, you are essentially putting them in a bank account that not only has no interest but has a high monthly charge,” he said. “Nothing produced there is going to end up being populated and eventually these corals will die and have to be replaced. And so you go bankrupt. “
