Award: OCE-2530272

In the summer of 2022, an unknown coral disease was observed to be causing mortality on the remote reefs of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary in the northwest Gulf of America/Mexico. These remarkable reefs have historically had low disease incidence, and it was feared that this unknown disease could be stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD). This project’s team includes marine ecologists, coral epidemiologists, molecular ecologists, and modelers, and the team has spent years integrating methodologies to understand coral diseases around the world, and in the US Virgin Islands (NSF #2109622). 

This project aimed to apply the team’s collective expertise towards understanding the nature and origin of this disease outbreak. By collecting information on the morphological characteristics of the disease and fate tracking diseased and healthy corals, we have demonstrated that ecological characteristics of the disease do not align with the species susceptibility, lesion behavior, and mortality rates known for SCTLD. Analysis of the bacterial characteristics of the disease from samples analyzed so far show limited uniformity across diseased samples and also healthy samples, suggesting high microbial diversity and no consistent microbial etiology. However, a viral group and genes indicative of nutrient deficiency and breakdown of the coral-dinoflagellate partnership were detected. These findings suggest that in diseased samples containing this viral group, viruses may influence disease altering cell metabolism and/or growth. We also found that fireworms, which crawl on and eat coral tissues, release live symbiotic microalgae in their feces as they move through the environment. This process can help disperse key microalgae that healthy corals require across the reef. Our collaborative group has used coupled biophysical models to demonstrate that SCTLD could arrive at these remote reefs as dispersing passive particles, released from upstream reefs.  Results from this collaborative project will be further compared to samples and simulations from a larger collaborative project that targeted known SCTLD affected colonies in the U.S. Virgin Islands. By leveraging the results of these projects combined, we will greatly enhance our understanding of coral disease dynamics within the Gulf and the Caribbean.

This project has supported the field and laboratory work of 5 graduate and 3 undergraduate students and led to several oral presentations at the 2024 Ocean Sciences Meeting, the 2024 Reef Futures Meeting, and the 2025 Benthic Ecology Meeting. This project has resulted in a peer-reviewed manuscript (Carpenter et al. 2026) with several additional manuscripts currently in review and preparation, a presentation to the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council (Galveston, TX), and a virtual NOAA Seaside Chats presentation.

A BCO-DMO site was created for the project data and can be found here: https://www.bco-dmo.org/project/889917

Last Modified: 03/12/2026
Modified by: Adrienne Simoes Correa