We are happy to announce the publication of our first stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) intervention manuscript, “Assessing the effectiveness of two intervention methods for stony coral tissue loss disease on Montastraea cavernosa” in Scientific Reports. Master’s graduate and current Coral Research Technician Erin Shilling is the first author on this study, which includes the majority of her Master’s thesis research.
The full article is open-access and can be downloaded here.
Additional coverage can be found in Science News and FAU's press release.
This experiment compared chlorinated epoxy and antibiotic methods to treat SCTLD lesions to study how successful they were at potentially halting the lesion/overall disease progression when compared to untreated, SCTLD-affected controls. We found that while the antibiotic treatment (which is comprised of amoxicillin combined with an ointment “Base 2B” made by Ocean Alchemists LLC) was 95% effective at healing individual lesions, it unfortunately did not prevent the colonies from developing new SCTLD lesions over time. These findings are still extremely promising in the face of the SCTLD outbreak, which continues to spread throughout the Caribbean and for which the cause remains unknown.
This project was made possible through a collaborative effort and funding through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Florida Coral Disease Advisory Committee. Additional financial support for this research was provided by the PADI Foundation and the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute Foundation. We would also like to give a huge thanks to Ryan Eckert, Jeff Beal, Alexis Sturm, Michael Studivan, Matt Roy, and Jimmy Nelson for all their contributions to the project. Plus, a big thank you to our amazing collaborators Karen Neely, Brian Walker, Cheryl Woodley, Val Paul, Kristi Kerrigan, and more for their input on experimental design and disease intervention methodology.
The full article is open-access and can be downloaded here.
Additional coverage can be found in Science News and FAU's press release.
This experiment compared chlorinated epoxy and antibiotic methods to treat SCTLD lesions to study how successful they were at potentially halting the lesion/overall disease progression when compared to untreated, SCTLD-affected controls. We found that while the antibiotic treatment (which is comprised of amoxicillin combined with an ointment “Base 2B” made by Ocean Alchemists LLC) was 95% effective at healing individual lesions, it unfortunately did not prevent the colonies from developing new SCTLD lesions over time. These findings are still extremely promising in the face of the SCTLD outbreak, which continues to spread throughout the Caribbean and for which the cause remains unknown.
This project was made possible through a collaborative effort and funding through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Florida Coral Disease Advisory Committee. Additional financial support for this research was provided by the PADI Foundation and the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute Foundation. We would also like to give a huge thanks to Ryan Eckert, Jeff Beal, Alexis Sturm, Michael Studivan, Matt Roy, and Jimmy Nelson for all their contributions to the project. Plus, a big thank you to our amazing collaborators Karen Neely, Brian Walker, Cheryl Woodley, Val Paul, Kristi Kerrigan, and more for their input on experimental design and disease intervention methodology.
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