Since the appearance of stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) on reefs off Miami in 2014, this unprecedented outbreak has spread across the entirety of Florida’s coral reef tract, as well as to many territories throughout the Caribbean. The endemic zone reached the upper Florida Keys by 2016, resulting in partial or complete mortality of coral colonies across numerous species. Disease was first observed at Cheeca Rocks (Islamorada, Florida) in the beginning of 2018, with reports of coral mortality peaking mid-year. The disease was still present at Cheeca Rocks as of March 2021, however to a lesser degree compared to the initial outbreak. Annual monitoring efforts have been ongoing at Cheeca Rocks since 2012, including repeated benthic photomosaics of a 330 m2 survey zone, spanning six replicate sites. As such, a repository of coral community composition data exists for before and after the disease outbreak that was analyzed to assess the impacts of SCTLD on reef communities at an upper Florida Keys inshore reef. Cheeca Rocks is hypothesized to be a resilient reef due to its persistent high coral cover despite its inshore location, which subjects corals to fluctuating water quality and marginal environmental conditions. Coral populations have been shown to recover from bleaching events and heat stress with minimal coral mortality. Though colonies of coral species characterized as highly and moderately susceptible to SCTLD (e.g., Colpophyllia natans, Diploria labyrinthiformis, Pseudodiploria strigosa, Orbicella annularis, and O. faveolata) suffered mortality as a result of the outbreak with an average loss of 16.42% relative cover by species, the overall impacts on coral cover and community structure were relatively low, contributing to a loss of total coral cover of only 1.65%. Comparison of photomosaic data to other studies indicate Cheeca Rocks may not have been affected as severely as other sites on Florida’s coral reef tract, underlying this site’s potential role in coral resilience to stressors including bleaching events, land-based pollution, and disease epizootics.

中文翻译：

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石珊瑚组织损失病 (SCTLD) 对佛罗里达礁岛上游近海斑块礁珊瑚群落结构的影响使用光马赛克

自从 2014 年迈阿密附近的珊瑚礁上出现石珊瑚组织损失病 (SCTLD) 以来，这种前所未有的爆发已经蔓延到佛罗里达州的整个珊瑚礁区域，以及整个加勒比地区的许多地区。到 2016 年，流行区到达佛罗里达群岛的上游，导致许多物种的珊瑚群落部分或完全死亡。疾病于 2018 年初在 Cheeca Rocks（佛罗里达州伊斯拉莫拉达）首次观察到，有报道称珊瑚死亡率在年中达到顶峰。截至 2021 年 3 月，该疾病仍存在于 Cheeca Rocks，但与最初的爆发相比程度较轻。自 2012 年以来，Cheeca Rocks 一直在进行年度监测工作，包括对 330 平方米调查区重复进行底栖光马赛克，跨越六个复制站点。因此，在疾病爆发之前和之后存在一个珊瑚群落组成数据存储库，该数据库被分析以评估 SCTLD 对佛罗里达礁岛群上岸礁石群落的影响。Cheeca Rocks 被假设为一个有弹性的珊瑚礁，因为尽管它位于近海位置，但其珊瑚覆盖率仍然很高，这使珊瑚受到波动的水质和边缘环境条件的影响。珊瑚种群已被证明可以从白化事件和热应激中恢复，而珊瑚死亡率最低。尽管对 SCTLD 高度和中度敏感的珊瑚物种群落（例如，Colpophyllia natans、Diploria labyrinthiformis、Pseudodiploria strigosa、Orbicella ringis 和 O. faveolata）因爆发而死亡，相对覆盖率平均损失 16.42%按物种，对珊瑚覆盖率和群落结构的总体影响相对较低，导致珊瑚覆盖率仅损失 1.65%。将马赛克照片数据与其他研究进行比较表明，Cheeca Rocks 可能没有像佛罗里达州珊瑚礁区的其他地点那样受到严重影响，这是该地点在珊瑚对压力因素（包括白化事件、陆上污染和疾病流行）恢复能力方面的潜在作用的基础。