Virginia H. Garrison Michael A. Gray John T. Lisle 2014 Laboratory experiments were conducted to assess if exposure to atmospheric African dust stimulates or inhibits the growth of four putative bacterial coral pathogens. Atmospheric dust was collected from a dust-source region (Mali, West Africa) and from Saharan Air Layer masses over downwind sites in the Caribbean [Trinidad and Tobago and St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI)]. Extracts of dust samples were used to dose laboratory-grown cultures of four putative coral pathogens: <i>Aurantimonas coralicida</i> (white plague type II), <i>Serratia marcescens</i> (white pox), <i>Vibrio coralliilyticus</i>, and <i>V. shiloi</i> (bacteria-induced bleaching). Growth of <i>A. coralicida</i> and <i>V. shiloi</i> was slightly stimulated by dust extracts from Mali and USVI, respectively, but unaffected by extracts from the other dust sources. Lag time to the start of log-growth phase was significantly shortened for <i>A. coralicida</i> when dosed with dust extracts from Mali and USVI. Growth of <i>S. marcescens</i> and <i>V. coralliilyticus</i> was neither stimulated nor inhibited by any of the dust extracts. This study demonstrates that constituents from atmospheric dust can alter growth of recognized coral disease pathogens under laboratory conditions. application/pdf 10.3133/ofr20141017 en U.S. Geological Survey Evaluation of coral pathogen growth rates after exposure to atmospheric African dust samples reports