Host size and proximity to diseased neighbours drive the spread of a coral disease outbreak in Hawai'i.

ABSTRACT: Understanding how disease risk varies over time and across heterogeneous populations is critical for managing disease outbreaks, but this information is rarely known for wildlife diseases. Here, we demonstrate that variation in host and pathogen factors drive the direction, duration and intensity of a coral disease outbreak. We collected longitudinal health data for 200 coral colonies, and found that disease risk increased with host size and severity of diseased neighbours, and disease spread was highest among individuals between 5 and 20 m apart. Disease risk increased by 2% with every 10 cm increase in host size. Healthy colonies with severely diseased neighbours (greater than 75% affected tissue) were 1.6 times more likely to develop disease signs compared with colonies with moderately

SUBMITTER: Caldwell JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5784196 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature