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Australian coral researchers warn of white syndrome disease

Science - Climate

Mary Hoff writes the May 8, 2007 article “What’s Behind the Spread of White Syndrome in Great Barrier Reef Corals?” in the journal PLOS (Public Library of Science) Biology.

Hoff concludes, “If global warming increases the incidence of warm temperature anomalies in tropical oceans the years ahead, these results suggest that corals in high-cover areas will be increasingly vulnerable to white disease."

"If the effect is large enough, the tightly woven web of life within coral reefs could begin to unravel, potentially transforming habitats that were once among the planet’s richest ecosystems into underwater wastelands.”

This strong evidence for a link among a warming ocean, coral density, and white syndrome provides a rich foundation for further work to understand the spread of coral disease in the Great Barrier Reef."

And Hoff ends by saying, "It also provides valuable insights into marine epidemiology that could be of much value in investigating and potentially mitigating other devastating global-warming–related disease outbreaks in the world’s vast and vulnerable oceans.”