Flower Garden Banks Reefs Pseudodiploria Strigosa disease

Marine diseases have devastating impacts on ocean ecosystems and this work directly informs understanding of disease transmission in the ocean. To understand the cause and patterns of spread of a disease outbreak that began in late summer of 2022 at the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, a team of ecologists, ocean connectivity and disease modelers, microbiologists, and coral immunologists is monitoring the health of corals, and biopsy their tissues. This data aid in developing a model that predicts coral disease transmission and its impacts on economically valuable coral reefs in the wider Caribbean.