Discovery made for what is killing Black Spiny Urchins

[ichthyoid]

Discovery made in just 4 months!

Turning to genetic signals of micro-organisms such as fungi and ciliates, they found that one of the latter, Philaster apodigitiformis, was present only in sick urchins. Adding it to tanks containing healthy urchins caused 60% of them to lose their spines within days.

 

[morganatlanta]

Awesome progress. I was diving in Antigua last year and there were dead and dying urchins everywhere. So sad because the Caribbean reefs have just started to recover from the last outbreak that killed all the urchins around 20 years ago.

 

[chemaholic]

This is why we science.