Abstract
Scleractinia, also called stony corals, are ecosystem engineers because of their ability to build reefs. Corals are severely threatened and declining globally due to anthropogenic climate change, pollution, habitat destruction, and disease. The most recently identified coral disease, stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) was first identified in 2014 and has affected corals along the entire Florida Reef Tract and in 22 Caribbean countries and territories, reaching the USVI in 2019. SCTLD is characterized by rapid spread, rapid tissue loss and high mortality rates. The persistence and continued spread of the disease make it one of the most serious threats to America’s coral reefs to date. The purpose of this study is to assess coral reef changes in factors pre and post stony coral tissue loss disease event at four sites around Buck Island and one site at Salt River. These sites were selected based off where previous water quality data was taken and where previous data existed for potential study factors. New water quality and coral demography data were taken at the same sites including the following parameters: salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature, total phosphorous, nitrates and nitrites. The goal of this study was to compare coral cover, coral diversity, disease prevalence and percent old mortality, pre and post disease event. To do this, all five sites were surveyed using the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) coral demographic survey protocol. Data on the coral species, size, percent old and percent new mortality, and any signs of disease or bleaching were collected. I conducted 10 surveys at each site, totaling 50 surveys. The results of this study reveal that disease tended to be more prevalent at sites with higher coral density, water quality in the USVI is poor, there is an interesting negative relationship between disease and bleaching, and the one significant difference in diversity was a reduction. The results of this study add to the ongoing research of stony coral tissue loss disease, and highlight the need to further study the relationship between different coral diseases and coral bleaching.