Preliminary survey of diseases in the coral reefs of Burmanallah coast, Andaman’s

Abstract

<span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:" times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-font-family:calibri;="" mso-bidi-font-family:"times="" roman";color:black;mso-ansi-language:en-in;="" mso-fareast-language:en-us;mso-bidi-language:ar-sa"="">Present study consists the survey conducted <span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:" times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-font-family:calibri;="" mso-bidi-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-ansi-language:en-in;mso-fareast-language:="" en-us;mso-bidi-language:ar-sa"="">on the several patterns of diseases in corals from Burmanallah coast of the Andaman Islands. It was observed that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Porites</i> sp. were found to be highly sensitive to coral diseases, as they were found with yellow spot disease, pink line syndrome, white line syndrome, white plague and black band diseases. Ring line syndrome was observed only in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Acropora humilis</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Acropora monticulosa</i>, while abnormal growths were observed in both <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Acropora humilis</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Porites </i>sp. Beside these diseases, bleaching was commonly found in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Porites</i> sp. probably due to increase of temperature during the summer season and also may be due to change of salinity attributed to heavy rainfall during both the monsoons. Other factors that were found to cause inhibition of coral growth were sediment deposition, algal mat covers and presence of different bioeroders.</span></span>