Introduction

Abstract:

                There are a large amount of diseases now being discovered in corals all around the world and all sorts of different causes. This is not normal for the corals and has only recently begun to rise in numbers (Goreau, 1998). The purpose of my study was to find out the distribution of diseased brain corals among four sites: John Smith's Bay, Cooper's Island, Tobacco Bay, and Whalebone Bay. I hoped that this information could shed some light on the percentage of diseased corals, specifically brain corals, in Bermuda. My results showed that between the four sites, there wasn't a significant difference, but they all had at least 40% of their brain corals diseased.

                                                                                Brain Corals

            There are two types of brain coral, Diploria strigosa, also known as, Common Brain Coral and Diploria labyrinthiformis, also known as, Double-ridged Brain Coral. Both are hard corals and "grow in a hemisphere covered with sinuous ridges"(Thomas, 2002). When they are healthy they posses a yellow color and can grow one to three meters in length. They get their name brain coral because the ridges make them look like an exposed brain and the only difference between the two is that the D. labyrinthiformis have ridges down the middle (Thomas, 2002).

<- D. strigosa

 Diploria labyrinthiformisD. Labyrinthiformis ->

                In the first few of days in Bermuda, we observed many organisms and made a choice of what to do our projects on. Originally I picked the distribution of Black Band Disease (BBD) in brain coral. As I started to collect data for my project I noticed not many brain coral had active BBD in the bays I had chosen. So, I decided looked at all the diseased brain coral, no matter what kind of disease it was. This included discoloration, sedimentation, BBD, missing parts, etc.            

             

                The spread of disease in corals is becoming more common around the world. There are many different kinds of diseases and most affect multiple species of coral. There are many different things that affect the brain corals, some include Black Band Disease (BBD), sedimentation, turbidity, physical disturbance, pollution, salinity, etc. (Goreau, 1998). In Bermuda I focused more on how many brain corals were affected by disease, and not what was causing it to be diseased. I did this because it was so hard to tell most of the time what was actually causing the disease. 

                It is important to see what is happening to these corals so that we can try to help them thrive in their communities and prevent further impact on them. Pollution is one contibutor to the disease of corals. In my experiment I also tested the water in all four bays to see if there was a correlation between the number of diseased corals and the amount of pollutants in the water. My experiment was to snorkel around the bays and collect data on the diseased coral and see if there was a significant difference between the four sites. 



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