White band disease has been devastating colonies of staghorn and elkhorn corals in the Caribbean, but the major pathogenic agent has not been identified.
Until now.
Northeastern University professor Steven Vollmer says he and his team of researchers combined field work and tank experiments with machine learning models to narrow the list of most likely pathogens to a berry-shaped bacteria known as Cysteiniphilum litorale.
Number two on the list is another type of aquatic bacterium, a type of Vibrio, which Vollmer suspects is more of an opportunistic pathogen.
“Cysteiniphilum is the cause,” he says.
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Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University
