Feingold,-J.S.  Ecological studies of a cyanobacterial 
	infection on the Caribbean Sea plume Pseudopterogorgia 
	acerosa  (Coelenterata: Octocorallia).  		
	PROCEEDINGS-OF-THE-SIXTH-INTERNATIONAL-CORAL-REEF-
	SYMPOSIUM,-TOWNSVILLE,-AUSTRALIA,-8th-12th-AUGUST-1988.-
	VOLUME-3:-CONTRIBUTED-PAPERS-MINI-SYMPOSIUM-11-16-TO-22. 
	Choat,-J.H.;Barnes,-D.;Borowitzka,-M.A.;Coll,-
	J.C.;Davies,-P.J.;Flood,-P.;Hatcher,-B.G.;Hopley,-D.;et-
	al.-eds.. 1988. pp. 157-162.

Some scleractinian corals are susceptible to an infection 
called black band disease caused by the cyanobacterium 
Phormidium corallyticum . A similar disease, also caused by 
P. corallyticum , was discovered on colonies of the 
gorgonians Pseudopterogorgia acerosa  and P. americana . In 
these gorgonians, the infection progressively denudes the 
skeleton of coenenchymal tissues as it moves along the main 
axis and peripherally onto branchlets. Subsequent 
colonization by macrophytic algae and epibiotic invertebrates 
smothers the remnants of living gorgonian tissue leading to 
further damage and possible death. Diseased colonies were 
found in 0.5 to 2.5 m water depth in the northern Florida 
Keys. Highest disease frequencies were found on P. acerosa  
during summer in the shallowest depth zone at Sands Key, 
Florida. The population of P. acerosa  within a permanent 
quadrat slowly declined over 2 years at a rate slightly 
higher than disease frequency.