C. PATHOLOGY OF DISEASE Identifying Diagnostic Tools Necessary to Adequately Characterize the Pathology Associated with Coral Disease

Over the past three decades, coral reefs worldwide have experienced significant losses in living coral cover and changes in the structure and function of these communities. Infectious diseases have been recognized as a prominent cause of mortality in scleractinian corals in the western Atlantic since the 1980’s, but until recently there were few reports of coral disease from the Indo-Pacific region. Current efforts to systematically assess the types and prevalence of coral disease in the Indo-Pacific suggest that coral disease also occurs commonly on Indo-Pacific reefs, and these diseases may have a greater role in structuring coral communities in the region than previously thought. Unfortunately, few diseases affecting Indo-Pacific corals have been adequately characterized, quantitative data on the spatial and temporal variability of diseases and their impacts are lacking for most locations, and linkages between environmental parameters and diseases affecting Indo-Pacific corals are unknown.