28th ANNUAL EASTERN FISH HEALTH WORKSHOP April 21-25, 2003 From Global To Molecular: Unraveling What Is Happening On Coral Reefs Ginger H. Garrison United States Geological Survey, 600 Fourth Street South, St. Petersburg, Florida 33701 Coral reefs throughout the world are in decline. It is estimated that more than one fourth of the world's coral reefs have been lost or seriously impaired in the past 25 years. Increased incidence of disease in coral reef organisms, decreases in abundance of reef-associated fishes and reef-building corals, increases in macroalgae, and lack of recovery on damaged reefs have been widely reported. Although our knowledge of coral reefs has advanced significantly over the past five decades, the basic causes and processes driving the declines and lack of recovery on coral reefs remain elusive.  Cause and effect relations are poorly understood for many large-scale processes such as coastal nutrification, increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide, contaminant transport and widespread coral disease. The basic processes at work need to be understood on scales ranging from molecular to global. Traditionally, coral reef studies have focused at the scale of a reef, reef complex or limited geographic location.  Many processes affecting reefs extend well beyond reef areas, and beyond institutional or political boundaries.  For example, atmospheric and oceanic circulation and river flow act as transporters, governing the physical, chemical, and biological environment.  Increased efforts in research from the fine (i.e., molecular) to the global scale are essential if we are to understand the basic processes behind the changes observed on coral reefs today.  Recent efforts range from studies of global transport systems (atmospheric dust), to oceanic-scale transects (comparisons between ocean basins), to communities (microorganisms in natural and disease states), to organisms (immune systems, disease mechanisms), to molecular (biomarkers, studies in situ), to elemental (ICP-MS methods to reconstruct paleoenvironment), to creation of international databases (e.g., registry of coral pathology). Return to 28th Annual Eastern Fish Health Workshop Return to Leetown Science Center Home Page