Bacterial diseases are claiming the lives of many small-polyp stony
Bacterial diseases are claiming the lives of many small-polyp stony and Acropora corals. The bacterial infections to these corals mainly lead to rapid tissue death and tissue necrosis, symptomatology that describes conditions where Acropora corals and related SPS corals lose tissues through sloughing from their skeletons (Rosenberg, Omry, Leah, Rotem and Ilana 356). Coral tissue loss follows several patterns, including rapid tissue loss from the skeleton, or sloughing of tissues from the skeleton due to the effects of currents. The bleaching of corals is a result of Vibrio species, some of which luminesce, while others elicit bioluminescence with deep-sea fish intracellularly. In the same way, Vibrio species induce zooxanthellae characteristics in corals in some specific conditions (Rosenberg et al 357; Rowan 742).
