Deployment: vanWoesik_2012

First, we will use a hierarchical sampling design to test whether coral diseases follow a contagious-disease model over two spatial scales in the Caribbean. We will also undertake this study in locations with and without a recent history of frequent thermal stress to test the alternate hypothesis that coral diseases are not infectious and contagious but are instead the result of compromised coral hosts that have undergone thermal stress. Second, we will undertake transmission experiments to examine whether coral diseases are indeed transmissible.

Study Locations: (1) Mahahual, Mexico (latitude  18"42’N, longitude  87"42’W) and (2) Tuxpan, Mexico (latitude  21"01’N, longitude  97"11’W), (3) Robet van (latitude  9"12’N, longitude  82"09’W), (4) St. John, United States Virgin Islands (USVI) (latitude  18"18’N, longitude  64"45’W), and (5) Wonderland Reef, Florida (latitude 24.56028 N, longitude 81.50127 W).