PARENT SESSION
Oral Session # 23: Marine Ecology I: Crabs, Coral, and Lobsters.
Presiding: J Wilson
Tuesday, August 5. 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM, SITCC Meeting Room 202.

African dust: Causal agent of coral reef declines, alias of El Niño, or a mirage?

Fauth, John¹, ¹ College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, USA

ABSTRACT- Caribbean coral reefs declined precipitously in the past thirty years, but causal agents remained elusive. Recently, trans-Atlantic African dust storms were hypothesized to contribute to reef declines, but data were not formally analyzed. I used stepwise logistic regression to show accumulations of African dust were more closely associated with benchmark events than either the El Niño-Southern Oscillation Index or sea-surface temperature anomalies. Spores of the soil fungus Aspergillus, which kill sea fans, have been found on African dust, and other pathogens and contaminants also may be transported on it. However, African dust explained <25% of observed variation, suggesting it was not solely responsible for disease and bleaching. Therefore, researchers should investigate African dust as one of many plausible contributors to declining Caribbean coral reefs.

Key words: Aspergillosis, El Niño, African dust, corals