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Diseases, Harmful Algae Blooms (HABs) and Their Effects on Gulf Coral Populations and Communities

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Coral Reefs of the Gulf

Part of the book series: Coral Reefs of the World ((CORW,volume 3))

Abstract

Corals in the Gulf exist in a harsh environment, which only allows a small subset of the typical Indo-Pacific fauna and flora to persist and/or form viable populations (Sheppard and Sheppard 1991; Sheppard et al. 1992; Samimi-Namin and van Ofwegen 2009; Chaps. 11 and 12). Environmental factors have been identified as the major killers of corals and these factors regulate population dynamics and coral reef community structure (Chaps. 2, 5, 10 and 16). Among these, extreme temperature variability, salinity variability and turbidity (as a result of coastal construction, Chap. 16) have been isolated as prime killers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Coral Reef Institute, Nova Southeastern University, Dania Beach, FL, USA

    Bernhard M. Riegl & Sam J. Purkis

  2. Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, Landover, MD, USA

    Andrew W. Bruckner

  3. Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity Naturalis, 9517, 2300 RA, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Kaveh Samimi-Namin

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  1. Bernhard M. Riegl
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  2. Andrew W. Bruckner
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  3. Kaveh Samimi-Namin
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  4. Sam J. Purkis
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Correspondence to Bernhard M. Riegl .

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  1. , National Coral Reef Institute, Nova Southeastern University, Dania Beach, 33004, Florida, USA

    Bernhard M. Riegl

  2. , National Coral Reef Institute, Nova Southeastern University, Dania Beach, 33004, Florida, USA

    Sam J. Purkis

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Riegl, B.M., Bruckner, A.W., Samimi-Namin, K., Purkis, S.J. (2012). Diseases, Harmful Algae Blooms (HABs) and Their Effects on Gulf Coral Populations and Communities. In: Riegl, B., Purkis, S. (eds) Coral Reefs of the Gulf. Coral Reefs of the World, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3008-3_7

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