Intervention

This page is under construction! Updates coming soon.

The Intervention Team has been primarily focused on developing, evaluating, and applying treatments to SCTLD-affected corals. Through increased capacity and expertise, the team hopes to also address response to other discrete disturbances, development and application of novel coral reef interventions, and longer-term custodianship of reef areas.

The Intervention Team is led by:

Karen Neely (NSU)

Where we are today

To date, actions of the Intervention Team have focused exclusively on experimental SCTLD treatments. This has included laboratory trials of novel treatments, pilot field studies of various treatment approaches, and larger scale efforts to treat SCTLD-impacted corals. The most successful interventions have been amoxicillin treatments directly to diseased coral tissue, which has resulted in thousands of square meters of coral tissue saved across Florida's Coral Reef.

Today, SCTLD prevalence is variable but generally below its epidemic levels of several years ago. Amoxicillin treatments continue on the largest colonies in Southeast Florida and on key sites in National Parks; amoxicillin treatments are not currently permitted in Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. SCTLD treatments in Florida constitute the world's largest effort to stem the spread and mitigate the impacts of a coral disease in situ.

The Intervention Team includes participants from Nova Southeastern University, Florida Atlantic University Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Ocean Alchemists, National Park Service, Smithsonian, and University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Application of a specially formulated coral ointment to animals impacted by stony coral tissue loss disease has saved thousands of colonies from a grim fate. These interventions are the largest such effort to treat a coral disease anywhere.Photo: Karen Neely/NSU

Current & Future Directions

Identify capacity support for Team coordination, with a focus on agency leadership to help advance Team priorities. At present, the Team is practitioner-driven -- this has facilitated nimble and rapid action, but management agency support is needed to help with planning efforts and resourcing, especially to engage in new disturbance interventions.
Assist in the research and development of novel interventions. This may include the creation of ‘Tiger Teams,’ or small groups of experts from a variety of fields who are tasked with utilizing their diverse, complementary technical expertise to implement creative solutions to a specific challenge or threat.
Support application/implementation of novel interventions to acute disturbances. This should not be limited to SCTLD interventions, but can include prioritized disturbances: coral diseases causing extensive mortality, bleaching, and hurricanes. Action should be dictated by thresholds that are collaboratively defined by managers and researchers.
Consider the development of groups who can intervene on more chronic or episodic disturbances like algal overgrowth and corallivore outbreaks. Groups of coral reef ‘custodians,’ ‘guardians,’ or ‘rangers’ could be established to help with site maintenance. These groups can be site-specific (e.g., restoration sites or sites with large corals) or can have a broader range.

Header photo credit: Liv Williamson/UM

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