Revista de Biología Tropical ISSN Impreso: 0034-7744 ISSN electrónico: 2215-2075

OAI: https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/rbt/oai
Octocoral densities and mortalities in Gorgona Island, Colombia, Tropical Eastern Pacific
HTML
PDF

Keywords

Octocorals
aspergillosis
Pacifigorgia
Tropical Eastern Pacific
rising seawater temperatures
marine diseases
mass mortality
Gorgona Island
Colombia
Octocorales
aspergilosis
Pacifigorgia
Pacífico Oriental Tropical
aumento de las temperaturas del agua de mar
enfermedades marinas
mortalidad masiva
Isla Gorgona
Colombia

How to Cite

Sánchez, J. A., Ardila, N. E., Andrade, J., Dueñas, L. F., Navas, R., & Ballesteros, D. (2014). Octocoral densities and mortalities in Gorgona Island, Colombia, Tropical Eastern Pacific. Revista De Biología Tropical, 62(S1), 209–219. https://doi.org/10.15517/rbt.v62i0.16277

Abstract

Owing to the decrease of reef organisms in general, it has become essential to study populations that are prone to marine diseases, with the purpose of developing accurate survivorship predictions and in turn alarm on triggers and drivers of disease outbreaks. In this study, we quantified the octocorals of Gorgona island, Tropical Eastern Pacific (Colombia), during 2007 and 2009 documenting a mass mortality occurred during 2008. We recorded 16 octocoral species with densities that ranged between 2 and 30 colonies m-2. Most abundant octocorals were Leptogorgia alba and Pacifigorgia spp. (Gorgoniidae: Octocorallia). During 2009 we noticed a mass mortality involving Pacifigorgia irene, P. adamsi, P. rubicunda andP. eximia, with a reduction of 70% of the colonies between 12 and 20 m in water depth. Around 5% of seafans during 2007 had an epizootic disease similar to aspergillosis, which seems the cause of the mass octocoral mortality. This disease outbreak observed in Gorgona island, and other nearby areas of the Colombian Pacific during 2007-2010, corresponded to extended periods of anomalous elevated seawater surface temperatures and thermal anomalies during the upwelling season of 2008. Constant monitoring of seawater temperatures and octocoral populations are urgently needed in this area to understand the nature of this new disease outbreak. Rev. Biol. Trop. 62 (Suppl. 1): 209-219. Epub 2014 February 01.

https://doi.org/10.15517/rbt.v62i0.16277
HTML
PDF

References

Alker, A. P., Smith, G. W. & Kim, K. (2001). Characterization of Aspergillus sydowii (Thom et Church), a fungal pathogen of Caribbean sea fan corals. Hydrobiología, 460: 105-111.

Bakun, A., Field, D. B., Redondo-Rodriguez, A. N. A. & Weeks, S. J. (2010). Greenhouse gas, upwelling-favorable winds, and the future of coastal ocean upwelling ecosystems. Global Change Biology, 16: 1213-1228.

Barrero-Canosa J., L. Dueñas & J.A. Sánchez (2013) Isolation of Potential Fungal Pathogens in gorgonian corals at the Tropical Eastern Pacific. Coral Reefs 32: 35-41.

Bruno, J. F., Selig, E. R., Casey, K. S., Page, C. A., Willis, B. L., Harvell, C. D., Sweatman, H. & Melendy, A. M.. (2007). Thermal Stress and Coral Cover as Drivers of Coral Disease Outbreaks. PLoS Biol, 5:e124.

Bruno, J. F., Ellner, S. P., Vu, I. & Harvell, C. D. (2011). Impacts of Aspergillosis on sea fan coral demography: modeling a moving target. Ecological Monographs, 81: 123-139.

Cerrano, C., Bavestrello, G., Bianchi, C. N., Cattaneo-Vietti, R., Bava, S., Morganti, C., Morri, C., Picco, P., Sara, G., Schiaparelli, S., Siccardi, A., & Sponga, F. (2000). A catastrophic mass-mortality episode of gorgonians and other organisms in the Ligurian Sea (North-western Mediterranean), summer 1999. Ecology Letters, 3: 284-293.

Díaz, D., Málikov, I., & Villegas, N. (2008). Características de las zonas de surgencia de la cuenca del Pacífico colombiano y su relación con la zona de convergencia intertropical. Boletín Científico. Centro de Investigaciones Oceanográficas e Hidrográficas del Caribe, 26: 59-71.

Etnoyer, P. J., Wirshing, H. H. & Sánchez, J. A. (2010). Rapid Assessment of Octocoral Diversity and Habitat on Saba Bank, Netherlands Antilles. PLoS One, 5:e10668.

Garzon-Ferreira, J. & Zea, S. (1992). A Mass Mortality of Gorgonia ventalina (Cnidaria, Gorgoniidae) in the Santa Marta Area, Caribbean Coast of Colombia. Bulletin of Marine Science, 50: 522-526.

Geiser, D. M., Taylor, J. W., Ritchie, K. B. & Smith, G. W. (1998a). Cause of sea fan death in the West Indies. Nature, 394: 137-138.

Geiser, D. M., Taylor, J. W., Ritchie, K. B., & Smith, G. W. (1998b). Cause of sea fan death in the West Indies. Nature, 394: 137-138.

Guzman, H. M. & Breedy, O. (2012). Pacifigorgia marviva (Anthozoa: Octocorallia) a new species from Coiba National Park, Pacific Panama. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 92: 693-698.

Harvell, D., Aronson, R., Baron, N., Connell, J., Dobson, A., Ellner, S., Gerber, L., Kim, K., Kuris, A., McCallum, H., Lafferty, K., McKay, B., Porter, J., Pascual, M., Smith, G., Sutherland, K. & Ward, J. (2004). The rising tide of ocean diseases: unsolved problems and research priorities. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 2: 375-382.

Harvell, D., Jordan-Dahlgren, E., Merkel, S., Rosenberg, E., Raymundo, L., Smith, G., Weil, E., Willis, B. & Coral, G. E. F. (2007). Coral Disease, Environmental Drivers, and the Balance between Coral and Microbial Associates. Oceanography, 20: 172-195.

Harvell, D., Altizer, S., Cattadori, I. M., Harrington, L. & Weil, E. (2009). Climate change and wildlife diseases: When does the host matter the most? Ecology, 90: 912-920.

Kerr, A. C. (2005). La Isla de Gorgona, Colombia: A petrological enigma? Lithos, 84: 77-101.

Lasker, H. R. (2005). Gorgonian mortality during a thermal event in the Bahamas. Bulletin Marine Science, 76: 155-162.

Lessios, H. A., Robertson, D. R. & Cubit, J. D. (1984). Spread of Diadema mass mortality through the Caribbean. Science, 226: 335-337.

Linares, C., Coma, R., & Zabala, M. (2008). Effects of a mass mortality event on gorgonian reproduction. Coral Reefs, 27: 27-34.

Mydlarz, L. D., Holthouse, S. F., Peters, E. C. & Harvell, C. D. (2008). Cellular responses in sea fan corals: granular amoebocytes react to pathogen and climate stressors. PLoS One, 3:e1811.

Nagelkerken, I., Buchan, K., Smith, G. W., Bonair, K., Bush P., Garzon-Ferreira, J., Botero, L., Gayle, P., Harvell, C. D., Heberer, C., Kim, K., Petrovic, C., Pors, L., & Yoshioka, P. (1997). Widespread disease in Caribbean sea fans. II: Patterns of infection and tissue loss. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 160: 255-263.

Prahl, H. V., Escobar, D. & Molina, G. (1986). Octocorales (Octocorallia: Gorgonüdae y Plexauridae) de aguas someras del Pacífico Colombiano. Revista de Biología Tropical, 34(1): 13-33.

Polidoro, B. A., Brooks, T., Carpenter, K. E., Edgar, G. J., Henderson, S., Sanciangco, J. & Robertson, D. R. (2012). Patterns of extinction risk and threat for marine vertebrates and habitat-forming species in the Tropical Eastern Pacific. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 448: 93-104.

Sánchez, J. A., Pizarro, V., Acosta, A. R. S., Catillo, P. A., Herron, P., Martínez, J. C., Montoya, P. & Orozco, C. (2005). Evaluating coral reef benthic communities in remote Caribbean atolls (Quitasueño, Serrana, and Roncador banks) to recommend marine-protected areas for the seaflower biosphere reserve. Atoll Research Bulletin. National museum of natural history, Washington, D.C.

Sánchez, J. A., Herrera, S., Navas-Camacho, R., Rodríguez-Ramírez, A., Herron, P., Pizarro, V., Acosta, A. R., Castillo, P. A., Montoya, P. & Orozco, C. (2010). White plague-like coral disease in remote reefs of the Western Caribbean. Revista de Biología Tropical, 58: 145-154.

Sánchez, J. A., Gómez, C. E., Escobar, D., & Dueñas, L. F. (2011). Diversidad, abundancia y amenazas de los octocorales de la isla Malpelo, Pacífico Oriental Tropical, Colombia. Boletín de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras, 40: 139-154.

Sánchez J.A. & D. Ballesteros (2014) The invasive snowflake coral (Carijoa riisei) in the Tropical Eastern Pacific, Colombia. Revista de Biología Tropical 62 (Suppl. 1): 197-207.

Schärer, M. & Nemeth, M. (2010). Mass mortality of gorgonians due to a Cyphoma gibbosum (Linnaeus) population outbreak at Mona Island, Puerto Rico. Coral Reefs, 29: 533-533.

Smith, G. W., Ives, L. D., Nagelkerken, I. A. & Ritchie, K. B. (1996). Caribbean sea-fan mortalities. Nature, 383: 487-487.

Smith, G. W., Harvell, C. D. & Kim, K. (1998). Response of sea fans to infection with Aspergillus sp. (Fungi). Revista de Biología Tropical, 46: 205-208.

Smith, G. W. & Weil, E. (2004). Aspergillosis of Gorgonians. In E. Rosenberg & Y. Loya (Eds.), Coral Health and Disease (pp. 279-287). New York, USA.

Sokolow, S. H. (2009). Effects of a changing climate on the dynamics of coral infectious disease: a review of the evidence. Diseases of Aquatic Organisms, 87:5-18.

Spalding, M. D., Fox, H. E., Allen, G. R., Davidson, N., Ferdaña, Z. A., Finlayson, A. X., Halpern, B. S., Jorge, M. A., Lombana, A. L., Lourie, S. A., Martin, K. D., McManus, E., Molnar, J., Recchia, C. A., & Robertson, J. (2007). Marine Ecoregions of the World: A Bioregionalization of Coastal and Shelf Areas. BioScience, 57: 573-583.

Sutherland, K. P., Porter, J. W. & Torres, C. (2004). Disease and immunity in Caribbean and Indo-Pacific zooxanthellate corals. Marine Ecology-Progress Series, 266:273-302.

Toledo-Hernández, C., Zuluaga-Montero, A., Bones-González, A., Sabat, A. M. & Bayman, P. (2008). Fungi in healthy and diseased sea fans (Gorgonia ventalina): Is Aspergillus sydowii always the pathogen? Coral Reefs, 27: 707-714.

Ward, J. R. & Lafferty, K. D. (2004). The Elusive Baseline of Marine Disease: Are Diseases in Ocean Ecosystems Increasing? PLoS Biol, 2:e120.

Ward, J. R., Kim, K. & Harvell, C. D. (2006). Temperature affects coral disease resistance and pathogen growth. Marine Ecology-Progress Series, 329: 115-121.

Zapata, F. A., Rodríguez-Ramírez, A., Caro-Zambrano, C. & Garzón-Ferreira, J. (2010). Mid-term coral-algal dynamics and conservation status of a Gorgona Island (Tropical Eastern Pacific) coral reef. Revista de Biología Tropical, 58: 81-94.

Fig. 1. Gorgona Island, Colombia, in the Tropical Eastern Pacific, with the study sites (modified from Zapata et al. 2010). Site abbreviations: M1: Montañita 1, M2: Montañita 2, FA: Farallones, LA: Laberinto, HO: Horno, AZ: Azufrada reef.

Comments

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Copyright (c) 2014 Revista de Biología Tropical

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.