Evaluating patterns of a white-band disease (WBD) outbreak in Acropora palmata using spatial analysis: a comparison of transect and colony clustering.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Despite being one of the first documented, there is little known of the causative agent or environmental stressors that promote white-band disease (WBD), a major disease of Caribbean Acropora palmata. Likewise, there is little known about the spatiality of outbreaks. We examined the spatial patterns of WBD during a 2004 outbreak at Buck Island Reef National Monument in the US Virgin Islands.

Methodology/principal findings

Ripley's K statistic was used to measure spatial dependence of WBD across scales. Localized clusters of WBD were identified using the DMAP spatial filtering technique. Statistics were calculated for colony- (number of A. palmata colonies with and without WBD within each transect) and transect-level (presence/absence of WBD within transects) data

SUBMITTER: Lentz JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3139597 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature