Coral mortality in reefs: The cause and effect; A central concern for reef monitoring

Abstract

The primary causal agents for the destruction of corals are the abiotic and/or biotic agents or a combination of both. The abiotic factors that are responsible are bioerosion, sedimentation, eutrophication and pollution, whereas the biotic causes are unbalanced predation, competitors for substratum and diseases. As a result, the effects of these causative agents are partial mortality in massive corals, bleaching, block-band and white-band disease. All these effects of various causal organisms or events are destructive and long-lasting. The coral reef monitoring programme therefore aims at identifying reefs in various localities inorder to monitor them for various diseases and hence evolve strategies to eliminate the causes of diseases