Disease from human sewage is killing Caribbean corals
Disease from human sewage is killing Caribbean corals
Forty years ago, the elkhorn coral was one of the most common species in the Caribbean. Five years ago, it was listed as critically endangered. The coral’s woes are many but, aside from the warming temperatures, predators and storms that affect all corals, the elkhorn is also plagued by a highly contagious malady called white pox disease. White lesions erupt all over the coral’s branches, representing areas where its animal tissue has wasted away to leave the white skeleton.
Now, Kathryn Patterson Sutherland from Rollins College in Florida has discovered the cause of white pox disease, and it’s an unexpected one – us. We have literally landed the elkhorn in s**t.
The white pox is caused by a bacterium called Serratia marcescens which we donated to corals via a gift of sewage. S.marcescens is a gut bacterium found in human faeces. It’s also an opportunist. It grows where the atmosphere is moist, such as sinks and showers, and where immune systems are weak, such as catheters, wounds and hospital equipment. But how dd it end up infecting coral reefs?
In 2003, Sutherland found a clue. During an outbreak of white pox disease, she identified a unique strain of S.marcescens, known as PDR60, in both local elkhorns and untreated human sewage. Now, she has confirmed that this strain causes white pox disease. In aquarium tanks, she let the strain loose upon colonies of elkhorns and saw that it caused white wounds in as little as four days. Other strains from human wastewater did the same.
More:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/08/23/disease-from-human-sewage-is-killing-caribbean-corals/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DiscoverEnvironment+%28Discover+Environment%29
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