Simplified
Key to Stony Coral Diseases and Coral Predation
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A.
Acroporid corals (staghorn, elkhorn and fused staghorn coral)
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| 1. |
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Go
to...
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A.
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Presence
of Recent Mortality |
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B.
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Very
little or no recent mortality, but colony may have old mortality |
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| 2. |
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A.
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Tissue
is missing but skeleton is intact |
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B.
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Tissue
is missing and skeleton is damaged or abraded |
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C.
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Tissue
may or may not be missing; colony has irregular knobs, projections,
or galls |
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| 3. |
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A.
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White
exposed skeleton forms a band |
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B.
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White
exposed skeleton forms a series of blotches or irregular patches |
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| 4. |
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A.
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Tissue
loss is progressing from the base of the colony to the branch
tips |
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B.
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Tissue
loss affects branch tips and not the base of a branch |
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| 5. |
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A.
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Tissue
loss progresses in a uniform band; tissue adjacent to exposed
skeleton may be sloughing off; small (1-2mm) spots of tissue
may remain on recently exposed skeleton, adjacent to live tissue |
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B.
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Tissue
loss is progressing in a band but the tissue margin has a scalloped
appearance and tissue is not sloughing off; snails may occur
at the margin |
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| 6. |
Tissue
is lost in a series of irregular patches and |
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A.
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Tissue
appears to be sloughing off the skeleton; skeleton is intact;
live tissue is fully pigmented; no snails are apparent; |
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B
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Exposed
skeleton is covered in fine sediment |
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| 7. |
Colony has lost tissue and underlying skeleton appears abraded;
and |
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A.
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affected
areas may be at the edges of the branches, the branch tips or
within the branch surface; teeth marks or a crescent shaped
excavation may be visible |
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B.
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colony
has a series of circular lesions, 1-3 cm diameter |
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| 8. |
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A.
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Colony
has irregular pale to white nodules, tumors or lumps on branch
surface; polyps are smaller than normal or absent; affected
area may surround exposed skeleton |
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B.
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Colony
has multiple elevated chimney-like structures, 1-2 mm in height
that encircle a tuft of algae |
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C.
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Portions
of the colony are covered by other invertebrates or algae |
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| 9. |
Portions
of the colony are being overgrown by an invertebrate and |
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A.
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the competitive organism is a smooth, hard, brown to tan crust
that is advancing slowly |
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B.
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the
competitive organisms is a soft brown fuzzy mat |
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C.
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the
competitive organism is soft, smooth, mat-like and green in
color and can be easily peeled from the branch surface |
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D.
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The
competitive organism is tan to mustard yellow and smooth; its
surface has fine hairs and it is painful to the touch |
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