Talk:Halofolliculina corallasia

Sources & notes
Sources I hope will be useful (should also mine out all those already cited): --Philcha (talk) 07:47, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Basic zoology

 * - less useful than I thought, quite speculative; but worth looking for any sources that find actual fossil evidence of Skeletal Eroding Band -Philcha (talk) 12:03, 16 August 2009 (UTC)
 * - close relatives of H. corallasia appear not to cause SEB, so what's special about this species (or genus)?

Folliculinidae
(less formal term folliculinids)
 * - could be v useful, IF can translate the jargon
 * may help - Ciliophora are a sub-phylum (others say class) that includes heterotrichs (sub-class in Ruppert et al) 2 levels down in the taxonomic hierarchy; folliculinids are a family (2 levels down again, mind the step!) and contain genus Halofolliculina  - so use for only very general background and only if absolutely necessary
 * - use with great care because this article is 2 few levels up the hierarchy, e.g. "Ciliates typically have cilia at some time during their life cycle ... Some species ..." (my emph) --Philcha (talk) 12:06, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Skeletal Eroding Band

 * - alt name for disease proposed, "Caribbean ciliate infection"
 * - alt name for disease proposed, "Caribbean ciliate infection"

Oppose

 * 1) This article describes the protozoa, not the disease Skeletal Eroding Band (SEB) itself. The protozoa has been shown to definitively cause the disease only in the India-Pacific Ocean. Other protozoa may be implicated in other areas. &mdash; mattisse  (Talk) 00:47, 17 August 2009 (UTC)
 * 2) Very premature, as there's a lot of research to come - the first outline description of the protozoan was only in 2001, and there were eventually be full descriptions of its anatomy and ecology (the latter partly to discover natural biological controls on H. corallasia). Likewise Skeletal Eroding Band should remain separate until we see what conclusions scientists reach - for example they may decide to call the Caribbean disease "Skeletal Eroding Band" because the symptoms are the same, although the agent appears to be a different species of Halofolliculina and the Caribbean cases appeared in a different environment. We have no way of guessing what structure will be appropriate - possibilities include: 2 species, 1 disease; 2 diseases and 1 genus, with notes on the differences between the same species; 2 species, 2 diseases, in which case the diseases should be part of the species articles. --Philcha (talk) 06:31, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Removed from article temporarily as this really belongs in the SEB article
Skeletal Eroding Band is the first recorded disease afflicting corals that is caused by a protozoan, and the first caused by a eucaryote. Most diseases of corals are caused by bacteria. It was first noticed in 1988 near Papua New Guinea and then near Lizard Island in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, but was regarded as a gray variant of Black Band Disease, as were instances off Mauritius in 1990. Surveys in 1994 in and around the Red Sea first identified the condition as a unique disease. It is now considered the commonest disease of corals in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, especially in warmer or more polluted waters.

SEB is a disease of stony coral that destroys the surface layer of the coral's limestone skeleton. SEB has been documented on coral reefs off shore near Sinai, along the coast of the Red Sea, and near the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean and Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef in the Pacific Ocean.

The spread of the disease across an infected coral has been measured at 2 mm in the Red Sea and 2 to 3 mm around the Great Barrier Reef. Corals of the families and Acroporidae and especially Pocilloporidae are most vulnerable. A study in 2008 found that Skeletal Eroding Band spread at about 2 mm per day in colonies of Acropora muricata, eventually wiping out 95% of its victims. However, experiments showed that H. corallasia easily colonized already-dead areas of corals but did not infect undamaged corals.

&mdash; mattisse (Talk) 00:52, 17 August 2009 (UTC)