Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 November 2019 | 11(14): 14912–134913

 

 

New records of coral diseases in the Persian Gulf

 

Parviz Tavakoli-Kolour ¹ & Sanaz Hazraty-Kari ² 

 

^1,2 Graduate School of Engineering and Science, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan. 

¹ p.tavakoli@hotmail.com (corresponding author), ² s.hazrati@hotmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

Coral diseases as one of the most important stressor degrading global coral reefs including those in  the Persian Gulf where there is little information on coral diseases (Riegl et al. 2012); however, in recent years more known and unidentified diseases have been recorded especially from the northern Persian Gulf including Larak, Qeshm, Hengam, and Hormuz Islands (Kavousi et al. 2011, 2013; Tavakoli-Kolour et al. 2015).

Here, we report first observations of three coral diseases including black band disease (BBD) on Acropora (Image 1), a syndrome resembling yellow band disease (YBD) and red band disease (RBD) on Porites colonies (Images 2–3) from depth 5–6 m at Abu-Musa Island (25.897°N, 55.043°E) after widespread coral bleaching in the northern part of the Persian Gulf (Kavousi et al. 2014) in October 2012.  Although BBD (see Riegl et al. 2012; only from the southern part of the Gulf) and YBD were already recorded from the Persian Gulf, RBD (Image 3) is reported from the Persian Gulf for the first time. 

The YBD-like syndrome was observed on Porites corals (Image 2), however, like YBD which is a disease of endosymbiotic algae rather than the host coral (Cervino et al. 2008), showing pale (not dead) tissues.  Microbiological and histological investigation is needed to confirm the disease.

The RBD observed on Porites corals like the YBD-like syndrome was overgrown by algae at dead part of colonies (Images 2,3).

Unfortunately, due to banned diving and snorkeling activities around the island, ecological assessment of the diseases was not possible.   

 

For images - - click here

 

References 

 

Cervino, J.M., F.L. Thompson, B. Gomez-Gil, E.A. Lorence, T.J. Goreau, R.L. Hayes, K.B. Winiarski-Cervino, G.W. Smith, K. Hughen & E. Bartels (2008). The Vibrio core group induces yellow band disease in Caribbean and Indo-Pacific reef-building corals. Journal of Applied Microbiology 105: 1658–1671.

Kavousi, J. & H. Rezai (2011). Coral lesions around some Iranian Islands in the Persian Gulf. Galaxea 13: 5–6

Kavousi, J., P. Tavakoli-Kolour, M. Mohammadizadeh, A. Bahrami & A. Barkhordari (2014). Mass coral bleaching in the northern Persian Gulf, 2012. Scientia Marina 78(3): 397–404. https://doi.org/10.3989/scimar.03914.16A

Kavousi, J., P. Tavakoli-Kolour, A. Barkhordari & A. Bahrami (2013). Mass Mortality  of  Porites Corals  on  Northern  Persian  Gulf  Reefs  due  to Sediment-Microbial Interactions. International Journal of Marine Science 3 (38): 306–310. https://doi.org/10.5376/ijms.2013.03.0038

Tavakoli-Kolour, P., H. Rezai & J. Kavousi (2015). Outbreak of growth anomalies in coral communities of Qeshm Island, Persian Gulf. International Aquatic Research 7(2): 151–156. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40071-015-0100-3

Riegl, B.M., A.W. Bruckner, K. Samimi-Namin & S.J. Purkis (2012). Diseases, harmful algae blooms (HABs) and their effects on gulf coral populations and communities, pp. 107–125. In: Riegl, B.M. & S.J. Purkis (eds.). Coral Reefs of the Gulf. Springer, 379pp.