Coral reefs are the most spectacular and diverse ecosystems in the marine environment. Over the last decades, however, dramatic declines of coral reef communities have been observed. Corals are endangered due to natural and anthropogenic detrimental factors, such as global warming and environmental pollution.

Based on an international meeting on "Coral Health and Disease" in Eilat, Israel in April 2003, the book starts with case studies of reefs, e.g. the Red Sea, Caribbean, Japan, Indian Ocean and the Great Barrier Reef. The second part on microbial ecology and physiology describes the symbiotic relations of corals and microbes, and the microbial role in nutrition or bleaching resistance of corals. Particular coral diseases such as aspergillosis, white pox, black and white band diseases are treated in the third part. Finally, various hypotheses of the mechanisms of coral bleaching, including a projection of the future of coral reefs, are discussed.

1 The Coral Reefs of Eilat - Past, Present and Future: Three Decades of Coral Community Structure Studies

2 Coral Reef Diseases in the Wider Caribbean
3 Coral Disease on the Great Barrier Reef
4 Coral Diseases in Gulf of México Reefs
5 Coral Bleaching: Signs of Change in Southern Japan
6 Coral Bleaching in a Temperate Sea: From Colony Physiology to Population Ecology
7 Coral Bleaching, Diseases and Mortality in the Western Indian Ocean
8 Symbiont Diversity on Coral Reefs and Its Relationship to Bleaching Resistance and Resilience
9 Stress Effects on Metabolism and Photosynthesis of Hermatypic Corals
10 What Can Regeneration Processes Tell Us About Coral Disease?
11 Bacteria as a Source of Coral Nutrition
12 Antimicrobial Activity of Sponges and Corals
13 Microbial Communities of Coral Surface Mucopolysaccharide Layers
14 Culture-Independent Analyses of Coral-Associated Microbes
15 Aspergillosis of Gorgonians
16 White Pox Disease of the Caribbean Elkhorn Coral, Acropora palmata
17 Temperature-Regulated Bleaching and Tissue Lysis of Pocillopora damicornis by the Novel Pathogen Vibrio coralliilyticus
18 Black Band Disease
19 Dark Spots Disease and Yellow Band Disease, Two Poorly Known Coral Diseases with High Incidence in Caribbean Reefs
20 White Plague, White Band, and Other "White" Diseases
21 Monitoring the Health of Coral Reef Ecosystems Using Community Metabolism
22 Coral Resistance to Disease
23 Temperature Stress and Coral Bleaching
24 The Adaptive Hypothesis of Bleaching
25 The Bacterial Disease Hypothesis of Coral Bleaching
26 Coral Reefs and Projections of Future Change.