Coral Diversity and the Severity of Disease Outbreaks: A Cross-Regional Comparison of Acropora White Syndrome in a Species-Rich Region (American Samoa) with a Species-Poor Region (Northwestern Hawaiian Islands)

Table 1

Differences in biological variables and disease levels and incidence at outbreak sites within the northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) and American Samoa (AS).

Region	NWHI	AS
depth (m)	9.1	9.1
# Acropora species within transects	1	6+
Avg. Acropora cover (%)	52.9	31.3
Avg. Acropora density (#/m^2)	0.61	1.03
est. # Acropora colonies surveyed	183	309
Dominant colony size class within transects	>160 cm	40–80 cm
# AWS colonies year 0	26	13
# new AWS colonies year 1	16	4