What is this new tool that allows you to predict disease risks to better protect corals ?

Researchers at the University of Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) have designed a new coral disease forecasting tool. Aaron Bull/Getty Images

For better preservation of corals, American researchers have developed a tool to assess the risks of coral diseases. According to the authors of this work, this new device would have a risk prediction capacity "higher than that of previous systems".

All over the world, coral reefs are threatened by multiple factors: overfishing, warming and acidification of the oceans, predators… But a lesser known factor also threatens their survival: diseases. To better assess these risks – and adopting the adage that "prevention is better than cure" – researchers from the&# 39;University of Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) have designed a new coral disease forecasting tool, called "Multi-Factor Coral Disease Risk”.

If they have a natural origin, the frequency and transmission of diseases that can affect corals are amplified by climate change and human activities, which generate significant stress on corals. "Diseases pose a major threat to coral reefs, causing up to 95% mortality in coral reefs. dominant coral species during outbreaks such as white band disease in the 1980s and 1990s and stony coral tissue loss disease in the 2010s and 2020s in Florida and the Caribbean" , emphasize the HIMB researchers, whose work is published in the journal Ecological Applications.

White syndromes

Their new tool makes it possible to predict the risk of white syndromes (a set of coral diseases which manifest by an acute loss of tissue) and growth anomalies (chronic diseases which result in changes in the morphology of the skeleton) . "Our team developed ecological forecasts to anticipate the periods and conditions in which coral disease outbreaks are most likely to occur"< /em>, explains Megan Donahue, interim director of HIMB, who participated in the design of this tool, in a press release.