Development of alternative in situ treatments for stony coral tissue loss disease

Probiotics have been explored an alterative treatment method for stony coral tissue loss disease. This project worked to find new probiotic strains from a variety of different coral species to increase the likelihood of slowing or stopping SCTLD along the reef. In the past year, these researchers have isolated over 1,000 new diverse bacterial strains from multiple coral species, approximately 200 of which are promising candidates that inhibit potential bacterial pathogens and could be tested on corals to determine their success as probiotics. Further, they have tested several of these new strains on diseased corals in aquaria trials, advancing the investigation of the strains that are successful. Once tested in aquaria at the Smithsonian Marine Station, two of these strains were applied onto Florida’s Coral Reef using two methodologies.