Bhagooli, Ranjeet

Jogee, Shakeel

Kaullysing, Deepeeka

Ramah, Sundy

English

AJOL - African Journals Online

189WIO Journal of Marine Science  Special Issue 2/ 2021 189-192With the potential to cause rapid and large-scale reef decline, coral diseases represent a prominent global stressor to coral reef ecosystems (Aronson et al., 2003; Harvell et al., 2007). The Western Indian Ocean (WIO) is not spared from coral diseases. Observation of coral diseases in the WIO dates back to 1991 when the Skel-etal Eroding Band (SEB) coral disease caused by the pathogenic protozoan, Halofolliculina corallasia, was reported around Mauritius Island (Antonius (1991) in Antonius and Lipscomb, 2000). A study by Goreau in 1998 (cited in Hilbertz and Goreau, 2002) observed Porites Line Disease in massive Porites sp. in 1997 in Seychelles. In Zanzibar, Vibrio coralyticus was isolated from diseased Pocillopora damicornis (Ben-Haim and Rosenberg, 2002). White Syndrome Disease (WSD) was reported, at prevalence levels below 1.5%, in the south-west reef systems of Madagascar (Sheridan et al., 2014). Studies conducted around Reunion Island, Mayotte, and South Africa revealed the occurrence of six coral diseases: Growth Anomalies, Black Band Disease, Skeletal Eroding Band, WSD, Pink Line Syn-drome and Porites White Patch Syndrome (Séré et al., 2015). In the same study, spatial heterogeneity in dis-ease prevalence among the sites was also observed, where Reunion Island had the highest disease preva-lence rate (7.5 ± 2.2%) compared to South Africa (3.9 ± 0.8%) and Mayotte (2.7 ± 0.3%) (Séré et al., 2015). It was further reported that WSD and Black Band Disease were more common, and Porites and Acropora were the most disease-vulnerable genera. WSD, amongst other coral diseases such as Brown Band, SEB, Black Band and Ulcerative White Spot, was also reported as one of the most prevalent coral diseases among seven islands of the Maldivian Archipelago where the overall estimated disease prevalence was around 1.51% (Montano et al., 2015). More recently, Bhagooli et al. (2017) observed Brown Band, SEB, White Band, White Plague, Growth Anomalies, and Pink Pigmentation Response in corals in the lagoonal area of Mauritius. The only coral disease observations from the poorly studied Saya de Malha region revealed two types of coral diseases: one isolated Black Band case and the highly abundant Porites Line Disease (PLD) (Hilbertz and Goreau, 2002) at the northern region on Rit-chie bank and at depths of less than 20 m. The same PLD-affected corals that survived the 1998 bleaching event were found dead in 2002, most probably as a result of the disease (Hilbertz and Goreau, 2002). Although being remote and distant from terres-trial influences, the submerged Saya de Malha bank located in the WIO holds evidence of coral diseases and requires further studies. The second leg of the EAF-Nansen research survey cruise in May 2018 at the Saya de Malha bank pro-vided an opportunity to use the Video-Assisted Multi Sampler (VAMS) to collect coral samples. At loca-tion 39 (10o 22.6501’S; 62o 12.362035’E) on the Saya de Malha bank, WSD was observed on Acropora sp. which was collected (Fig. 1) from a depth of 30 m. Such environments are characterised by low coral First report of White Syndrome Disease  on branching Acropora at Saya de Malha,  Mascarene PlateauRanjeet Bhagooli 1,2,3*, Shakeel Jogee 1, Deepeeka Kaullysing 1,2, Sundy Ramah 1,4Field Note1 Department of Biosciences and Ocean Studies, Faculty of Science & Pole of Research  Excellence in Sustainable Marine Biodiversity,  University of Mauritius, Réduit 80837,  Republic of Mauritius2 The Biodiversity and Environment Institute, Reduit, Republic of Mauritius3 The Society of Biology, Reduit, Republic of Mauritius4 Albion Fisheries Research Centre,  Ministry of Blue Economy, Marine Resources, Fisheries and Shipping, Albion, Petite Rivière, 91001, Republic of Mauritius * Corresponding author: r.bhagooli@uom.ac.mu http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/wiojms.si2021.2.15190 WIO Journal of Marine Science  Special Issue 2/ 2021 189-192  |  R. Bhagooli  et al.cover and possibly reduced frequency of warm tem-perature anomalies. Ramah et al. (2021) indicated that at location 39, the general live hard coral cover was estimated at 9-33%. The corals observed at location 39 included Acropora, Porites, Lobophyllia, Goniastreaand Favites species. WSD in Acropora sp. was observed only among the collected coral samples. It is notewor-thy that high coral cover (>50%) and warm tempera-tures are two important prerequisites for outbreaks of WSD. Depth is also an important factor in the distri-bution of WSD, with a reduction of 89% and 43% in live coral cover at 5 m and 20 m, respectively, associated with WSD (Hobbs et al., 2015). WSD on Acropora corals have been commonly reported from depth ranges of 5 m (Hobbs et al., 2015; Hobbs and Frisch, 2010), 4-6 m (Roff  et al., 2011), and 20 m (Hobbs et al., 2015). It is also worth highlighting that corallivorous gas-tropods generally feed on Acroporids in large masses (high density aggregations) (Bruckner et al., 2017; Kau-llysing et al., 2017; Kaullysing et al., 2020). For instance, the corallivorous gastropods Drupella are attracted to other Drupella individuals forming an aggregation to feed over corals (Cumming, 2009a; 2009b). However, during this survey, not a single corallivorous individ-ual was collected and/or observed in the vicinity of the coral. Moreover, it has been reported that coralli-vorous gastropods occur in lower densities in deeper waters (6-9 m) (Scott et al., 2017). Thus, the possibility of the white patches being those of predation scars was ruled out.WSD appears to be quite common in the WIO (Sher-idan et al., 2014; Séré et al., 2015; Montano et al., 2015). WSDs are a group of coral diseases characterised by diff use patterns of tissue loss that expose the underly-ing bare white coral skeleton (Raymundo et al., 2008; Roff  et al., 2011). The lesion boundaries of WSD can be linear, annular or irregular, and the coral tissue bor-dering the lesion can sometimes become pigmented (Roff  et al., 2011; Beeden et al., 2008). In Acropora cor-als, the disease can be observed originating at the base of coral branches that are found in the middle of the colony (Roff  et al., 2011). The rate of tissue loss caused by this disease has been recorded to range from 0 to 1,146 cm2 per week (Roff  et al., 2011). The bacteriumVibrio owensii has been isolated as the main patho-genic agent of WSD in Monitpora capitata (Ushijima et al., 2012). WSDs have been observed to progress at a rate not exceeding 20 mm per day. The most com-mon host of this disease is Acropora corals (Raymundo et al., 2008; Roff  et al., 2011), but it has also been observed in Turbinaria (Dalton et al., 2009). WSDs have been recorded in the reefs of the Indo-Pacifi c (Roff  et al., 2011; Dalton et al., 2010), Caribbean (Weil and Hooten, 2008), Pacifi c Ocean (Aeby et al., 2010). The prevalence of WSD is moderately high, usually not exceeding 10% (Roff  et al., 2011). The prevalence of WSD is usually higher in winter months (Roff  et al.,2011). However, Aeby et al. (2010) reported no infl u-ence of season on the prevalence of WSD. Bruno et al. (2004) also reported an increase in the prevalence of WSDs in densely populated coral communities with increasing temperatures. This fi rst observation of WSD on the branching Acro-pora coral at a depth of 30 m at the southern Saya de Malha bank is indicative of the possibility of more infec-tious biotic stressors to the deep and ‘pristine’ coral reef ecosystem at that bank. Further in-depth characterisa-tion and distribution studies of prevalent diseases and inter-species susceptibility to diseases are warranted to thoroughly understand the impacts of coral diseases at the Saya de Malha bank, for enhanced and adaptive Figure 1. Figure 1. White Syndrome Disease (WSD) on Acropora sp. (A and B) collected from 30 m at Saya de Malha bank.191R. Bhagooli et al.  |  WIO Journal of Marine Science  Special Issue 2/ 2021 189-192coral reef management and conservation strategies and eff orts, especially in an era of global climate change. AcknowledgementsThe underlying work was made possible with the support of the EAF-Nansen Programme “Supporting the Application of the Ecosystem Approach to Fish-eries Management considering Climate Change and Pollution Impacts” executed by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooper-ation (Norad). The authors are thankful to FAO for funding and supporting the Indian Ocean research expedition 2018 on the Saya de Malha Bank and Naza-reth Bank with the R/V Dr Fridtjof Nansen, the Depart-ment of Continental Shelf, Maritime Zones Admin-istration & Exploration of Mauritius for co-leading and coordinating the scientifi c expedition, the Mau-ritius-Seychelles Joint Commission of the Extended Continental Shelf for their support and assistance and granting the necessary authorisations, the Min-istry of Blue Economy, Marine Resources, Fisheries & Shipping for hosting and spearheading the Habi-tat Mapping Workshop in Mauritius and for grant-ing necessary authorization to carry out research in the Nazareth Bank; the Institute of Marine Research, Norway for leading the expedition and providing the technical and logistic support. 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First report of White Syndrome Disease on branching Acropora at Saya de Malha, Mascarene Plateau

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First report of White Syndrome Disease on branching Acropora at Saya de Malha, Mascarene Plateau

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