Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
Crustose coralline algae (CCA) play a key role in calcification and consolidation of substrate on coral reefs, with some species also providing important settlement substrate for coral recruits. Like corals, CCA suffer diseases that threatens their survival and persistence (Vargas-Ángel 2010), including a fungal disease that results in rapid tissue necrosis, particularly during ocean warming events (Williams et al. 2014). Coralline fungal disease (CFD) was first reported at the island of Tutuila in American Samoa in 1998 (Littler and Littler 1998) and later at the islands of Swains and Rose in American Samoa (Vargas-Ángel 2010). Other reports of CFD are restricted to the remote central Pacific at Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll in the northern Line Islands (Vargas-Ángel 2010; Williams et al. 2014). Here we report on the first field sightings of CFD in the Indian Ocean at islands within the remote and highly protected Chagos Archipelago, British Indian Ocean Territory (Fig. 1). Of the 29 reefs surveyed during an expedition in April 2018 across ~ 200 km of latitude, CFD was documented at 8 of them. CFD sightings were restricted to shallow (< 15 m depth) fore reef habitats and not observed on backreef or patch reef habitats. At two reefs, CFD was at outbreak levels, with > 5 cases m−2 of CCA. These are among the highest densities of CFD ever reported and appeared to correlate with high host density at these locations (> 50% host CCA cover). The coral reefs of the Chagos Archipelago suffered from back-to-back ocean warming events in 2015, 2016 and 2017 that have reduced live hard coral cover. The high densities of CFD recorded here may represent a residual impact of these warming events but whether CFD significantly alters key reef processes such as accretion, coral recruitment and substrate consolidation across the region requires further study.
References
Littler MM, Littler DS (1998) An undescribed fungal pathogen of reef-forming crustose coralline algae discovered in American Samoa. Coral Reefs 17:144
Vargas-Ángel B (2010) Crustose coralline algal diseases in the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands. Coral Reefs 29:943–956
Williams GJ, Price NN, Ushijima B, Aeby GS, Callahan S, Davy SK, Gove JM, Johnson MD, Knapp IS, Shore-Maggio A, Smith JE, Videau P, Work TM (2014) Ocean warming and acidification have complex interactive effects on the dynamics of a marine fungal disease. Proc Roy Soc B 281:20133069
Acknowledgements
We thank the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) for granting access to the Chagos Archipelago and the crew of the Grampian Frontier for logistical support. Funding was provided by the Bertarelli Foundation. On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Williams, G.J., Roche, R.C. & Turner, J.R. First record of coralline fungal disease (CFD) in the Indian Ocean. Coral Reefs 37, 1243 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-018-1704-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-018-1704-z