Document Type
Article
Source of Publication
Coral Reefs
Publication Date
12-3-2025
Abstract
Increasing trends of coral mortality are a challenge to coral reef management worldwide, and a need exists to identify the causes and pathways involved. Pathology is useful to help decipher potential causes of mortality in animals, because it illuminates agents associated with lesions and gives insights on the nature of how a host responds to said agents. To better understand the nature of threats facing corals in the Arabian Peninsula, we performed gross and microscopic pathology on corals from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Among 321 coral fragments examined from 21 genera, tissue loss was the most common lesion seen in 31% of samples, reflecting its widespread presence on reefs from the Arabian Peninsula. Histologically, 68% of lesions exhibited necrosis, predominantly in the basal body wall and surface body wall. Endolithic filamentous microalgae and sponges, originating from the skeleton, were associated with 57% and 39% of lesions, respectively, and were often linked to necrosis and hyaline membrane formation. Cell-associated microbial aggregates and coccidia were detected mainly in Acropora, Pocillopora, and Porites but were not associated with adverse host response. Notably, 69–100% of fragments showing lesions were female likely reflecting the temporal reproductive life history of corals in the region. Our findings highlight endolithic organisms as major contributors to coral tissue degradation in the Arabian Peninsula. Future studies might focus on drivers of endolithic microalgal and sponge dynamics in the region and their role in coral reef health.
DOI Link
ISSN
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Disciplines
Life Sciences
Keywords
Arabian Gulf, Bacteria, Coccidia, Endoliths, Gulf of Oman, Host response, Microalgae, Red Sea, Sponges
Scopus ID
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Work, Thierry M.; Aeby, Greta S.; Abrego, David; Bouwmeester, Jessica; Howells, Emily; Range, Pedro; Ziegler, Maren; Jensen, Thor; Shore, Amanda; Vaughan, Grace; Burt, John A.; Voolstra, Christian R.; and Ben-Hamadou, Radhouan, "Pathological drivers of coral diseases across the Arabian Peninsula" (2025). All Works. 7740.
https://zuscholars.zu.ac.ae/works/7740
Indexed in Scopus
yes
Open Access
yes
Open Access Type
Hybrid: This publication is openly available in a subscription-based journal/series