THE EFFECTS OF SUNLIGHT ON THE PROGRESSION OF BLACK BAND DISEASE

Coral reefs are vulnerable to various diseases such as Black Band Dise ase (BBD). This experiment was designed to determine the effect of the lack of sunlight on BBD, and to see if ''shading'' would work as a de fense against the disease. The results show that by depriving the cyan obacteria, Phormidium corallyticum, of sunlight, BBD can be cured with in eight days in relatively pristine waters regardless of water temper ature.