Investigation of temperature as a driver of stony coral tissue loss disease dynamics

This project tested the influence of temperature on rates of progression of stony coral tissue loss disease in laboratory aquaria on two coral species, Montastraea cavernosa and Colpophyllia natans. Experimental studies of temperature effects on SCTLD have not been conducted, and are necessary to examine the effects of temperature on disease progression under controlled conditions without co-occurring changes in other environmental variables. The two infected coral species demonstrated different responses to increasing temperature in our experimental aquaria. Healthy tissue of infected C. natans declined more rapidly with increasing temperature. In contrast, M. cavernosa declined much less over the duration of the experiments overall and had no strong relationship with temperature. The very different responses of these two species are somewhat surprising and may be related to their different symbiont types (Cladocopium for M. cavernosa colonies and predominately Breviolum for the C. natans colonies) or other undetermined factors.