Edmunds,-P.J.  Extent and effect of Black Band Disease on a 
	Caribbean reef.  CORAL-REEFS. 1991. vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 
	161-165

The effect of Black Band Disease (BBD) among colonies of 
Montastrea annularis, M. cavernosa, Diploria strigosa, D. 
labryinthiformis, Siderastrea siderea  and Colpophyllia 
natans  was determined at 7 shallow locations in the Virgin 
Islands. Between September 1988 and November 1988, 0.2% of 
9204 colonies of these species were infected with BBD in 6908 
m super(2) of reef at 22 randomly chosen areas. Infected 
colonies were not clumped suggesting that the disease is not 
highly infectious between colonies. BBD infection rates in 
areas surveyed 4 times between August 1988 and September 1989 
in Greater Lameshur Bay, St. John, USVI, were significantly 
lower in winter compared to summer. BBDs were found on 5.5% 
of the colonies of D. strigosa) in fall 1988, and 7 out of 12 
infected colonies lost > 75% of their tissue in 6 months. Low 
level, chronic BBD infections could convert 3.9% of the 
living cover of D. strigosa  to free space per year, thereby 
creating substrata for successional processes.