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Addicted to the drug war - The role of civil asset forfeiture as a budgetary necessity in contemporary law enforcement
Abstract
Civil asset forfeiture is no stranger to criticism, in part because law enforcement agencies can share in the proceeds obtained from forfeitures. Critics claim that this potential for “profit” in law enforcement is the driving force behind civil asset forfeiture; that the noble goals of controlling crime and curbing illicit drug use are not high priorities. The research reported in this article partially substantiates critics' claims that pecuniary concerns guide civil asset forfeiture activities. Results from a survey of 1400 municipal and county law enforcement executives revealed that a substantial proportion of law enforcement agencies are dependent on civil asset forfeiture as a necessary budgetary supplement. In an attempt to explain the “addiction,” evidence is offered that dependence on civil asset forfeiture is positively associated with revenues generated from past forfeiture activities and inversely related to fiscal expenditures. The primary implication tied to these findings is that a conflict of interest between effective crime control and creative fiscal management will persist so long as law enforcement agencies remain dependent on civil asset forfeiture.
... Williams, 2002). For example, Worrall (2001) found that 40% of police executives reported that forfeiture proceeds were essential to their operational budgets. Importantly, this study was completed before the recent economic recession and its concomitant impact on state and local budgets. ...
... introduce questionable incentives for police behavior (Benson, Rasmussen, and Sollars, 1995;Blumenson and Nilsen, 1998;Mast et al., 2000;Worrall, 2001). Social science research on actual forfeiture activity is far more limited. ...
... The extraordinary lobbying efforts made by law enforcement interest groups to fight forfeiture reform are clear evidence that law enforcement wants to keep these proceeds (e.g., see Chammah, 2017;also, Blumenson and Nilsen, 1998;Chi, 2002;Hadaway, 2000;Moores, 2009;von Kaenel, 1994). Furthermore, law enforcement in many jurisdictions considers forfeiture proceeds as a necessary budgetary supplement (Worrall, 2001; see also Benson et al., 1995;Levy, 1996;Mast et al., 2000). That does not mean law enforcement should be able to increase departmental revenue directly through forfeiture activities. ...
Research Summary
For several decades, critics have argued that civil forfeiture laws create incentives for law enforcement to increase departmental revenue by “policing for profit.” By using data on federal equitable sharing payments to nearly 600 local law enforcement agencies between 2000 and 2012, we examine the relationship between the characteristics of state forfeiture laws and equitable sharing payments to local agencies. Our results indicate that agencies in states with state laws that are more restrictive or less rewarding to police collect more in federal equitable sharing. This finding supports the critics’ argument that police behavior in regard to forfeiture activities is influenced by the financial rewards and burdens involved.
Policy Implications
Our results reveal that the findings of investigative journalism and case study research, that is, that police forfeiture activities are influenced by financial rewards, may be more generalizable to law enforcement than previously thought. Despite recent state‐level reforms, federal equitable sharing and most state forfeiture laws provide limited due process protections and have minimal accountability or reporting requirements. Concerns about the impact of civil forfeiture practices on perceptions of procedural justice and police legitimacy are discussed, and possible policy reforms are reviewed.
... Critics fear that these amendments create a system in which law enforcement agencies are motivated to seek profits through the seizures that they make (Blumenson and Nilsen 1998; Mast, Benson, and Rasmussen 2000). In discussing the legal issues pertaining to civil AF law, it is helpful to contrast it with criminal AF law (Worrall 2001). As with ancient AF law, civil AF law results in an in rem proceeding, which designates the forfeited property as the guilty party. ...
... Many law enforcement agencies' budgets have become increasingly financially dependent on the proceeds of AF (Worrall 2001), giving these agencies a personal interest in vigilantly pursuing asset forfeitures. Finally, unlike the provision ruled constitutional in Jerrico, civil AF statutes, especially the amendment establishing the " equitable sharing program, " motivate agencies to pursue asset forfeitures by allowing them to retain and utilize the majority of the proceeds from seizures. ...
... As a federal law, CAFRA applies only to federal agencies, leaving state and local agencies free to continue the practice unfettered. Most importantly, though, CAFRA does not address the " equitable sharing program, " effectively leaving law enforcement agencies free to continue to utilize asset forfeiture as a revenue-generating strategy (Worrall 2001). Critics have suggested that law enforcement' s utilization of civil AF in the Drug War and the concomitant negative consequences will not be curtailed until a number of additional reforms are implemented. ...
Despite its failure to achieve its desired objectives, the War on Drugs continues on into a fourth decade with disastrous effects and extensive collateral damage. The current article explores civil asset forfeiture as one motivation that keeps the current drug policy intact. Specifically, it advances the premise that the current state of civil asset forfeiture law creates goal displacement that motivates law enforcement agencies to implement drug enforcement strategies that aggressively pursue civil asset forfeitures as a means of supplementing their budgets rather than as a legitimate tool for decreasing the supply of illicit drugs. The article explores how this goal displacement not only negatively impacts the progress of the War on Drugs, but also how it leads to disregard for individual due process rights, sometimes with tragic and life-altering consequences for innocent individuals. A brief discussion of the necessary reforms to civil asset forfeiture law is included.
... Financial incentives and " policing for profit " Perhaps the most significant criticism of asset forfeiture has focused on the purported financial incentives for law enforcement agencies to " police for profit " (Benson et al., 1995; Blumenson & Nilsen, 1998; Hadaway, 2000; Duffy, 2001; Skolnick, 2008; Worrall, 2001 Worrall, , 2004). As previously noted, most states allow law enforcement to keep a significant percentage, if not all, of the forfeiture proceeds from seizure activities. ...
... AssetRecoveryWatch.com, a forfeiture training and advocacy organization, recently cited a senior U.S. Department official who, speaking at a conference in July 2009, " urged prosecutors and law enforcement officials to seize and forfeit more ill-gotten gains " (AssetRecoveryWatch.com, 2009). There have been very few empirical studies of asset forfeiture and our knowledge about the factors associated with forfeiture activity is based primarily on surveys of law enforcement (Vecchi & Sigler, 2001; Worrall, 2001), examining changes in department budgets (Benson et al., 1995; Worrall, 2001), participant observation (Miller & Selva, 1994), and investigative journalism reports (Burnett, 2008aBurnett, , 2008bBurnett, , 2008cBurnett, , 2008d Poor & Rose, 1991a, 1991b, 1991c, 1991d; see generally Keller & Wright, 2004). The limited empirical research on the topic, however, suggests that forfeiture creates powerful financial incentives and revenue production does influence operational decisions in some law enforcement agencies. ...
... AssetRecoveryWatch.com, a forfeiture training and advocacy organization, recently cited a senior U.S. Department official who, speaking at a conference in July 2009, " urged prosecutors and law enforcement officials to seize and forfeit more ill-gotten gains " (AssetRecoveryWatch.com, 2009). There have been very few empirical studies of asset forfeiture and our knowledge about the factors associated with forfeiture activity is based primarily on surveys of law enforcement (Vecchi & Sigler, 2001; Worrall, 2001), examining changes in department budgets (Benson et al., 1995; Worrall, 2001), participant observation (Miller & Selva, 1994), and investigative journalism reports (Burnett, 2008aBurnett, , 2008bBurnett, , 2008cBurnett, , 2008d Poor & Rose, 1991a, 1991b, 1991c, 1991d; see generally Keller & Wright, 2004). The limited empirical research on the topic, however, suggests that forfeiture creates powerful financial incentives and revenue production does influence operational decisions in some law enforcement agencies. ...
... Had the CCCA not enacted forfeiture, crime would have been about 17% higher in states that implicitly restricted civil asset forfeiture use. Additionally, our paper directly contributes to the literature that studies the impacts of civil asset forfeiture, both on police budgets and police incentives (Baicker and Jacobson 2007;Benson, Rasmussen, and Sollars 1995;Boudreaux and Pritchard 1996;Holcomb, Kovandzic, and Williams 2011;Kelly and Kole 2016;Makowsky, Stratmann, and Tabarrok 2017;Mast, Benson, and Rasmussen 2000;Worrall 2001;Worrall and Kovandzic 2008). ...
... First, we collected and coded state forfeiture laws covering the period 1970 to 1992. These data are similar to what are reported in Worrall (2001), but cover the period prior to the enactment of the CCCA. Second, we use multiple files maintained as a part of the FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, including the annual county-level offenses reported, the annual citylevel arrests, and the number of officers killed 2. As of 2013, 49% of police agencies had established a special drug task force based on data collected in the LEMAS survey (U.S. DOJ, 2015) https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/ ...
... As a result, the police become dependent on seizures just to maintain their expenditure levels. This is consistent with Worrall's (2001) findings. His survey of a large number of city and county law enforcement executives indicates that many, including almost 40 % of the large agencies, claim dependence on forfeitures as budgetary supplements. ...
... Only four people got all of their money back, and the rest settled for 50 to 90 percent of their money after promising not to sue the sheriff's department. 10 implications of seizures suggested by Worrall's (2001) findings. The fact that budgets are reduced with a lag may actually imply that the entire amount of the seizure is important for police, either as a net gain or to cover reductions in budget allocations. ...
The present study focuses on expanding and broadening the connection between meaning in life and psychoactive substance abuse. Since professional literature presents an individual’s meaning in life as an immunizing factor against substance abuse, the present study sought to examine the impact of level of religiosity and level of ideological-political commitment, through the prism of meaning in life, on the attitudes adopted by adolescents towards such abuse, and their actual use of the various substances. The findings of the study, in which 1032 Israeli adolescents aged 14 to 18 took part, supported the hypothesis whereby a high level of religiosity “immunizes” against psychoactive substance abuse. However, they also indicate that despite the negative approach to it among individuals with high levels of ideological commitment, no significant correlation can be found between ideological commitment and actual psychoactive substance abuse. The study findings underscore the importance of both religion and ideological commitment in the formation of meaning in life by youth, as well as the impact of social supervision and perceived norms in their environment, with regard to their willingness to attempt using psychoactive substances, and their actual use thereof. The study findings contribute both to research and practical application when constructing programs for the prevention of normative adolescent substance abuse.
... Two additional studies found that the civil asset forfeiture was a key factor affecting agency priorities. Worrall (2001) found that revenues from civil asset forfeiture have become a financial necessity for many law enforcement agencies and that this dependence has much to do with the intense efforts by agencies to block reforms of the civil asset forfeiture statutes. 3 Blumenson and Nilson (1998) law review essay emphasises the importance of this legal mechanism as a revenue source for law enforcement agencies. ...
... Law enforcement agencies that provide many diverse additional services on behalf of their constituency are likely to be reliant on external sources of funding. One implication is that agencies that exhibit a great deal of functional complexity are more likely to actively develop diverse streams of funding, of which asset forfeiture is one (Worrall 2001). As such, proliferation of specialised functions and supporting departmental units within any agency is likely to be associated with a greater dependency on extra-budgetary income such as asset forfeiture. ...
The research on civil asset forfeiture has been largely anecdotal and has taken a politicised approach. Most accounts use specific cases to support their claims that widespread use of forfeiture is generated by dubious or ‘hidden’ law enforcement motives. Yet there are plausible theoretical reasons to believe that structural contexts condition the choice of mechanisms favoured by the law enforcement agencies. This research emphasises structural explanations for variation in the ratio of asset forfeiture dollars to drug arrests. Regression estimates show that agency complexity, black population size, economic inequality due to the presence of high income earners and local Republican Party political support in past elections are strong predictors of variation in this ratio indicator. This study highlights the selective use of asset forfeiture and arrest. The evidence presented here supports wider claims that the application of alternative mechanisms of local law enforcement do not operate in a social, economic and political isolation but rather their selective use is shaped by patterns of local inequality.
... Blumenson and Nilsen (1998) have argued that drug forfeiture laws place economic interests ahead of fairness and crime control, creating a very disconcerting conflict of interest. Worrall (2001) found that 40% of the large police agencies in his survey reported that assets seized via drug forfeiture were a necessary budgetary source. He concluded that "law enforcement has a vested interest in there being a drug problem because of the money and resources that stand to be gained" (Worrall, 2001, p. 183). ...
... Worrall (2001) found that 40% of the large police agencies in his survey reported that assets seized via drug forfeiture were a necessary budgetary source. He concluded that "law enforcement has a vested interest in there being a drug problem because of the money and resources that stand to be gained" (Worrall, 2001, p. 183). How much of this generalized negativity would be reduced if the United States stopped its current drug policies? ...
Some observers oppose imprisoning nonviolent drug offenders because they view incarceration as costly and such persons as
generally benign. The careercriminal literature has established that perpetrators, including drug violators, commit an array
of offenses. The current study merges these debates using a sample of 500 arrested adults selected from an urban jail in the
western United States. Drug offenders amassed a much more extensive arrest history than other suspects net the effects of
age, race, sex, prison history, and arrest onset. Drug offenders are quite versatile and do not conform to the image of specialized
violators who are nominally criminal.
... For example, the practice of civil asset forfeiture allows police departments and law enforcement agencies to seize and profit from the property of those suspected of illegal activities without the burden of an actual conviction, or even a criminal indictment. Critics argue that this practice is not only ripe for abuse but also incentivizes law enforcement agencies to 'police for profit,' (e.g., training officers to target high value property for seizure) (Chi, 2002;Crepelle, 2017;Holcomb et al., 2011Holcomb et al., , 2018Worrall, 2001). Despite its deep unpopularity across the political spectrum, civil asset forfeiture is entrenched at the local, state, and federal level through revenue sharing. ...
This article argues that criminal justice scholars should import the theory of institutional corruption from political science to make sense of a distinct set of problems in the criminal justice system. To make this argument, this article examines the case of Ferguson, Missouri. In Ferguson, the city’s mandate to maximize revenue generation had a corrosive effect on the day-to-day policies and practices of both the Ferguson Police Department and the municipal court, leading to aggressive policing, excessive fines, and a number of unfair and unconstitutional practices. Framed as a problem of institutional corruption, the case of Ferguson is emblematic of a broader set of issues in criminal justice institutions involving policies and practices that are legal but rife with corrupting incentives. Such problems demand further scrutiny from criminal justice scholars and practitioners alike.
... Indeed, the direct and indirect financial costs associated with the civil forfeiture process can be severe (Worrall, 2001). Attending multiple court appearances often means missing work, resulting in missed wages for hourly workers (American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, 2015b). ...
... Politically powerful interest groups continue to use the criminal law to extract resources today. Police take property from suspects, often without charges or trial, and auction it off to supplement their budgets ( Worrall 2001 ). Local governments use fi nes from minor infractions to gather revenue, hurting their poorest residents in the process ( United States Department of Justice 2015 ). ...
... They observed that those in the elected office do not have as strong a response to the financial incentive, seizing far fewer assets, as their appointed counterparts. Budgetary effects are persistent and self-reinforcing, as local governments and their police departments grow dependent on the criminal justice revenues for which they can be directly and indirectly credited (Baicker & Jacobson 2007, Beck & Goldstein 2017, Worrall 2001. Police officials, for all their efforts, are likely to find themselves on little more than a budgetary treadmill. ...
Revenue generated through the criminal justice system has become a key component of local government budgets across the United States. Although numerous restrictions exist to constrain traditional sources of revenue, only recently have legislators introduced checks on the fiscal profitability of fines, fees, forfeitures, and asset seizures. Left unrestricted, fiscal incentives have demonstrably manifested in the enforcement patterns and discretionary decisions of police. The transformation of officers into agents of revenue creation leads to increased targeting of minority populations and out-of-towners, with emphasis on arrests that yield potential property seizure, with negative consequences for both community trust and the provision of public safety. Those burdened with legal financial obligations are disproportionately poor, positioning the criminal justice system as a pointedly regressive form of taxation. We discuss the mechanisms behind criminal justice revenue generation, the consequences to law enforcement outcomes, and policies designed to reform and mitigate revenue-driven law enforcement.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Criminology, Volume 4 is January 13, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
... That scholarship suggests that the majority of civil forfeitures occur without a charge, or even an arrest (e.g., Burnett 2008;Sallah et al. 2014). Both researchers and law enforcement officials have emphasized the importance of forfeiture revenue (Cassella 1997;Williams 2002;Coe and Wiesel 2001), with one author finding that 40% of police executives reported forfeiture proceeds as essential to their operational budgets (Worrall 2001). ...
Under forfeiture laws, law enforcement organizations seize billions of dollars a year from U.S. citizens based on demonstrated or suspected connections between the assets and criminal activity. Interest groups have argued that taking of assets through forfeiture intentionally and disproportionately targets communities of color, but scholars have not sufficiently explored this relationship. In order to address this gap, we draw on racial threat theory to develop the expectation that the growth of black and Hispanic populations within a community will correlate positively with the amount of asset forfeiture, and representative bureaucracy theory to develop the hypothesis that greater representation of a particular minority group on the police force will negatively moderate that relationship. We test these hypotheses in an analysis of 2,278 municipal police departments between 1993 and 2007, finding evidence of a significant relationship between minority population share and reported forfeiture revenue. Furthermore, we find that increasing the proportion of black and Hispanic officers negatively moderates that relationship. We believe the results have implications not only for the U.S., but also for other nations with asset forfeiture regimes and more broadly for our understanding of the ways in which law enforcement organizations respond to diverse populations and the moderating impact of representation on those responses.
... 6 Actual empirical evidence on whether police departments strategically focus on certain types of arrests to maximize forfeiture revenue is mixed, although studies of individual jurisdictions have suggested a relationship between police behavior and forfeiture (see, for example, D' Alessio et al., 2015;Kelly & Kole, 2016;Miller & Selva, 1994). Regardless of their effect on incentives, researchers and law enforcement officials both emphasize the importance of forfeiture revenue (Cassella, 1997(Cassella, , 2004Coe & Wiesel, 2001;Williams, 2002), with one author finding that 40% of police executives reported forfeiture proceeds as essential to their operational budgets (Worrall, 2001). ...
The billions of dollars in assets seized by law enforcement each year represent a crucial source of revenue for these organizations, but also raise important constitutional questions and can create significant tensions within the jurisdictions they administer. Research on asset forfeiture to date has focused heavily on municipal police, largely neglecting forfeiture activities by sheriffs. Thus, it has missed an important opportunity to build theory about the differences between appointed and elected administrators and neglected an important source of institutional variation that may help to explain this particular administrative activity. To develop expectations about the relative levels of asset forfeiture and the response to intergovernmental incentives related to forfeiture, we draw on and extend scholarship comparing the behavior of elected versus appointed administrators in other settings. We test those expectations in analyses of more than 1,200 sheriff’s offices and over 2,200 municipal police departments between 1993 and 2007. Results suggest that sheriffs receive less forfeiture revenue than municipal police and are less responsive to state-level policies that change the financial rewards of asset forfeiture for agencies. These results hold whether we examine forfeitures made through the federal Equitable Sharing Program, where civil and criminal forfeiture cases can be distinguished, or jurisdictional level data on forfeiture, where civil and criminal forfeitures are combined. We conclude with a discussion of implications for both the research on asset forfeiture and on elected versus appointed public administrators more generally.
... There have also been concerns that the federal policy of sharing seized assets with local law enforcement agency partners may corrupt or skew enforcement priorities (Benson, Rasmussen, and Sollars 1995;Worrall 2001). Attorney General Holder in 2015 ended that policy precisely for that reason (O'Harrow, Horwitz, and Rich 2015). ...
Many judge the American criminal justice system to have largely failed in its drug enforcement role, and the justice system itself has suffered a loss of community support and internal morale as a consequence. Five principles should guide improvement of drug enforcement, including that drug enforcement be viewed as a preventive activity, whose main goal is reducing drug abuse and related harms, and it should be designed for sustainability. Six more specific proposals are, first, make marijuana enforcement a minor matter for police through decriminalization of possession or outright legalization; second, induce drug users who are under criminal justice supervision to refrain from drug use by imposing appropriate monitoring and graduated sanctions programs; third, expand opioid substitution therapy for heroin- and other opioid-using offenders; fourth, reduce the average severity of sentences for drug offenses, particularly for minor functionaries who are easily replaced; fifth, base sentence length on culpability, danger, and replaceability, not quantity possessed or number of prior convictions; and sixth, reduce prescription drug abuse by policing that reinforces regulatory efforts.
... There have also been concerns that the federal policy of sharing seized assets with local law enforcement agency partners may corrupt or skew enforcement priorities (Benson, Rasmussen, and Sollars 1995;Worrall 2001). Attorney General Holder in 2015 ended that policy precisely for that reason (O'Harrow, Horwitz, and Rich 2015). ...
The US needs to change its Drug policy, with the nature and the extent of the illegal drug problems in the country also changing fundamentally. It is found that certain policies need to be implemented as the country has found that the number of drug prisoners have continued to increase. An important justification for aggressive punishment is the claim that high rates of incarceration will reduce drug use and related problems. US policymakers need the consider on imposing shorter sentences on drug offenders and then employ the innovation of coerced abstinence as a means of keeping them clean during parole. Drug courts that use judges to compel offenders to enter and remain in treatment are one tool, but they account for a modest fraction of drug-involved offenders because the screening criteria are restrictive. The US is left with an enforcement system that runs on automatic, locking up increasing number of criminals, despite high economic and social costs of incarceration.
... That is, stakeholders make decisions for which they are not financially responsible. Of course, having a financial stake in critical liberty decisions could potentially cloud judgments or unduly sway the decision-maker (e.g., Miller and Selva 1994;Worrall 2001), and principled decoupling therefore has important benefits (see Hagan, Hewitt, and Alwin 1979). Nevertheless, because the federal criminal justice system includes various stakeholders and decision-makers who "own" different aspects of the process, decoupled decision-making has created enormous financial and social costs. ...
The United States federal criminal justice system is changing. Actuarial risk assessment instruments and evidence-based practices play increasingly important roles; federal reentry court programs have been implemented across the country. Yet, while promising, these developments may not be enough to stem the growth and costs of federal criminal justice. The highly politicized nature of crime and punishment may limit the potential for change. Even within the federal criminal justice system, the decoupled nature of bureaucracies, in which stakeholders make decisions for which they are not financially responsible, makes meaningful change problematic. States, however, have demonstrated that structural changes can foster efficient use of resources and improve fiscal stewardship. A number of statutory, structural, and procedural modifications could help to reorganize a continuum of fragmented bureaucracies into a cohesive federal reentry-centered system.
... 7 To maximize survey response, we followedDillman's (2007) tailored design method. Many other published studies involving surveys of police executives or local administrators have had response rates of about 50% (e.g.,Moon 2002;Pratt et al. 2006;Wang 2002;Worrall 2001).Baruch (1999), summarizing response rates in organizational surveys from 175 published studies, found an average response rate of 56% but noted that the percentage had declined over time-to an average of 48% by 1995. Response rates, Baruch noted, tend to be particularly low among top organizational executives (such as the chiefs surveyed here).at ...
In 1996, Congress created a new way to enforce national immigration laws, inviting state and local law enforcement personnel to become formally involved in the effort. Why have police departments in some communities embraced increased involvement in immigration enforcement, whereas others have shunned this role? Do local elected officials typically determine the contours of police practice in this area or do police departments act with considerable autonomy in deciding how much to become involved in immigration enforcement? We examine these issues by analyzing data from a national survey of police chiefs in municipalities with populations of 65,000 or more. Our analysis takes account of the possibly endogenous relationship between the policies of city government and the practices of police departments. We find that immigrant-supportive city policy commitments and the presence of a Hispanic police chief are associated with less intensive immigration enforcement by local police. Voter partisanship is also related to police practices, but only in cities with an unreformed form of government.
... Even now there are many in the police who fail to see that POCA is a central tactic in addressing drug-related (and other) harms and are instead diverted towards POCA as simply a source of income. The spectre of UK agencies becoming, what Worrall (2001) called, 'addicted to the drug war' is not currently an issue in the UK, but it remains a real risk to be recognised and managed. ...
This article provides an overview of the opportunities enforcement has to undertake activities to reduce harms caused by drug markets. Four pathways are open to the police in relation to drug harm-reduction: reducing the amount of drug use; reducing the harm that drug users experience; reducing the harms that drug users impose on others; and reducing the harms caused by drug markets. It is the latter pathway that is the main focus of this article, which draws on a range of international examples. After highlighting that ‘not all dealers are equally destructive’ it is argued that one aim for enforcement could be to shape the drug market by making the most noxious forms of selling uncompetitive relative to less harmful practices.
... Borrowing critics' arguments, the authors also warn of the possible corruption as well as abusive strategies of the law enforcement agencies (Stellwagen & Wylie). Worrall (2001) provided more empirical evidence regarding the allegation of a suspicious economy in drug enforcement. He conducted a survey of more than 1,000 law enforcement officials, and showed various conclusions which basically were consistent with the general assumption. ...
Drug profiling by the Louisiana State Police Criminal Patrol Unit (LSP-CPU) and the deputies of the St Martin Parish Sheriff's Office (SMSO) has been through in-depth analyses by Ruiz (2000) and colleagues (Bowling, Ruiz, & Staub, 2008; Ruiz & Woessner, 2006). Ruiz's essential findings support allegations of demographic profiling in traffic arrests on Louisiana's Interstate-10. Also, Ruiz suggested that the most plausible explanation was attributed to the war on drugs specified by Louisiana's asset forfeiture procedure. Assuming that a similar pattern would exist in the St. Martin Parish justice system, the present study examines the court dispositions that were followed by drug interdiction in Bowling et al. (2008), Ruiz (2000) and Ruiz and Woessner (2006). This study also endeavours to discover more evidence regarding the relationship between the asset forfeiture policy and drug interdiction by the Louisiana justice system. The drug arrest records from 1988 to 1994 that were prepared by the SMSO and the LSP-CPU officers and collected by Ruiz were analysed, focusing on court dispositions.
... His survey of a large number of city and county law enforcement executives indicates that many, including almost 40 % of the large agencies, claim dependence on forfeitures as budgetary supplements. Pursuit of forfeitures becomes an imperative in such cases, and Worrall (2001, 171) concludes that " the primary implication tied to these findings is that a conflict of interest between effective crime control and creative fiscal management will persist so long as law enforcement agencies remain dependent on civil asset forfeitures. " The contention that law enforcement is less effective because of these incentives is supported in Section III below. ...
... Financing policing through forfeiture oriented undercover operations (Miller & Selva, 1994;Worrall, 2001) and litigation problems stemming from informant mismanagement (Gardiner, 2002;Marx, 1985;Natapoff, 2004Natapoff, , 2006Natapoff, , 2009Schreiber, 2001;Williams & Guess, 1981) stimulate the development and implementation of instruction on informant utilization through positive and negative incentives, respectively (Poltilove, 2009). Informant management best practices are, in part, intended to maximize asset seizure, as evidenced by a U.S. Department of Justice endorsed booklet Asset Forfeiture: Informants and Undercover Investigations (Janzen, 1992; see also Bloom, 2002;Miller & Selva, 1994). ...
Though widely acknowledged as vital to law enforcement, social scientists have largely ignored the practice of confidential informing. The extant literature on the topic is primarily comprised of experientially based practical guides to informant management and a handful of field studies drawing information from informants in the study of other undercover practices. This study features data obtained from in‐depth interviews with eighty‐four former informants drawn from five southern states identified through a purposive‐snowball sampling strategy. Informant accounts suggest that the practice of confidential informing is an institutionalized component of a general narcotics enforcement pattern characterized by duplicity and social control irony. Confidential informant work is observed as a moral career entailing deviant identity maintenance through neutralizations and insider perspective. Narratives confirmed a motivational typology accounting for role assumption and informant–agent dynamics and orient discussion around practice and research implications.
... In many U.S. jurisdictions, however, police forces are able to keep or sell confiscated property to fund their own law enforcement activities. 34 Worrall (2001) reports that a substantial proportion of the 770 municipal and county law enforcement agencies that responded to a 1998 survey are dependent on civil forfeiture as a necessary budget supplement. 35 ...
This article addresses the numerous ways command or coercion is used by the state to enhance law enforcement, ways that involve creative interactions with both the targets of law enforcement and third parties. Coercive measures encompass both mandatory reporting and mandatory action. Examples are given and the benefits of using coercion in such circumstances discussed. However, coercion may also have unintended consequences and impose unreasonable costs. With these effects in mind, the authors suggest a set of guidelines for evaluating the appropriateness of coercive measures.
... Indeed, the federal government once touted such " benefits " of forfeiture (see Stellwagen and Wylie 1985) and opinion data suggest law enforcement understood the message. Worrall (2001) conducted a survey to determine local agencies' perceptions of the role of asset forfeiture in their budgets. He finds that 30 to 45 percent of law enforcement executives agree that " civil forfeiture is necessary as a budgetary supplement. ...
To encourage anti-drug policing, the federal government and many state governments have enacted laws that allow police agencies to keep a substantial fraction of the assets that they seize in drug arrests. We use rich new data on police seizures and local spending to explore the reactions of both governments and police to the incentives created by these policies. We find that local governments offset police seizures by reducing their other allocations to police, partially undermining the incentives laid out in statute and diverting the earmarked funds to other purposes. Police, in turn, respond to the real net incentives for seizures, once local offsets are taken into account, by increasing the drug arrest rate. Heroin prices also increase, suggesting that the increased emphasis on anti-drug policing raises the supply costs of illicit drugs. These findings highlight both the promise and pitfalls of using financial incentives to solve agency problems in a federal system: both local agents and intervening governments have sophisticated responses to financial incentives, and these responses must be taken into account in both designing effective policies and evaluating their consequences.
Many police departments across the United States seize property from community members in a process referred to as civil asset forfeiture. While the use of this practice varies across departments, few studies have examined how police organizational structure may influence how agencies may use this tool. Using data from the 2016 & 2020 waves of the Law Enforcement Management & Administration Survey (LEMAS), we examine how organizational constructs influence whether and how frequently agencies collect asset forfeiture revenue. Findings suggest that a range of organizational and community-policing metrics influence civil asset forfeiture across both waves. Measures of professionalization were related to civil asset forfeiture in 2016, but not 2020.
Neoliberal governance has become a defining feature of our social world, fast‐tracking the commodification of human interaction, particularly within capitalist economies. Neoliberalism’s intensification of capitalist social relations shifted social institutions such as education, healthcare, and criminal justice to resemble profit‐oriented enterprises. A preeminent consequence of this shift for the administration of criminal justice is the rapid expansion of monetary sanctions in the form of pay‐to‐stay fees. Our article contributes to scholarship on neoliberal governance and social institutions by exploring how lawmakers justify and frame the imposition and recoupment of pay‐to‐stay fees. We draw from a novel dataset compiled by the authors on pay‐to stay in the state of Illinois, which consists of state‐level pay‐to‐stay statutes, transcripts of legislative debates on the ratification of pay‐to‐stay statutes, and 102 civil complaints from 1997 to 2015 initiated on behalf of the Illinois Department of Corrections against currently and formerly incarcerated people to compel the payment of pay‐to‐stay fees. Our analysis suggests that in the era of neoliberal governance, consumerism is an institutional logic that lawmakers draw from to adopt pay‐to‐stay as a legal template in an effort to foster a producer–consumer relationship between incarcerated people and the state, thereby producing incarceration as a public commodity.
The 1984 federal Comprehensive Crime Control Act (CCCA) included a provision that permitted local law enforcement agencies to acquire up to 80% of the proceeds derived from civil asset forfeitures obtained in joint operations with federal authorities. We investigate how this rule governing forfeited assets influenced crime and police incentives by taking advantage of pre‐existing differences in state‐level civil asset forfeiture law and the timing of the CCCA. We find that after the CCCA was enacted crime fell about 17% in places where the federal law allowed police to retain more of their seized assets than state law previously allowed. (JEL K42, K15, H76)
en We investigate a possible linkage between municipal reliance on fines, fees, and forfeitures as a revenue source and policing behavior. With a dataset of four million traffic stops made by North Carolina municipalities, we demonstrate that a regular reliance on fines, fees, and forfeitures has powerful, predictable, and racially distinct impacts on black and white drivers, and that fiscal stress exacerbates these differences. A greater regular reliance on fines, fees, and forfeitures is linked to a decrease in the probability of white, but not black, drivers being searched; and increased odds of finding contraband among those white drivers who are searched, but no such change for black drivers. We validate the North Carolina tests with aggregate analyses of municipalities across four states.
Abstract
zh 我们调查了自治市对罚款、罚金、没收物作为收入来源的依赖与治安行为之间可能的联系。利用北卡罗来纳州自治市提供的4百万次交通拦检数据集，我们证明，对罚款、罚金、没收物的定期依赖对黑人和白人驾驶员产生了强有力的、可预期的、种族差异明显的影响，并且财政压力加剧了这些差异。对罚款、罚金、没收物的定期依赖增加与以下因素相关：白人驾驶员被搜查的可能性降低，而不是黑人；从被搜查的白人驾驶员处发现违禁品的机率增加，但黑人驾驶员则没有出现这样的变化。我们对四个州的自治市进行综合分析，证实了北卡罗来纳州的测试。
Abstract
es Investigamos un posible vínculo entre la dependencia municipal de multas, tarifas y decomisos como fuente de ingresos y comportamiento policial. Con un conjunto de datos de cuatro millones de paradas de tráfico realizadas por los municipios de Carolina del Norte, demostramos que una dependencia regular de multas, tarifas y decomisos tiene impactos poderosos, predecibles y racialmente distintos en los conductores blancos y negros, y que el estrés fiscal exacerba estas diferencias. Una mayor dependencia regular de multas, tarifas y decomisos está relacionada con: una disminución en la probabilidad de que se busquen conductores blancos, pero no negros; y mayores probabilidades de encontrar contrabando entre los conductores blancos que son buscados, pero no existe tal cambio para los conductores negros. Validamos las pruebas de Carolina del Norte con análisis agregados de municipios en cuatro estados.
Bringing together cutting-edge theory and research that bridges academic disciplines from criminology and criminal justice, to developmental psychology, sociology, and political science, Thinking About Victimization offers an authoritative, comprehensive, and refreshingly accessible overview of scholarship on the nature, sources, and consequences of victimization. Written in a lively style with sharp storytelling and an appreciation of international research on victimization, this book is rooted in a healthy respect for criminological history and the foundational works in victimization studies. It provides a detailed account of how different data sources can influence our understanding of victimization; of how the sources of victimization-individual, situational, and contextual-are complicated and varied; and of how the consequences of victimization-personal, legal, and political-are just as complex. This book also engages with contemporary issues such as cybervictimization, intimate partner violence and sexual victimization, prison violence and victimization, and terrorism and state-sponsored violence. Thinking About Victimization is essential reading for advanced courses in victimization offered in criminology, criminal justice, sociology, social work, and public policy departments. With its unapologetic reliance on theory and research combined with its easy readability, undergraduate and graduate students alike will find much to learn in these pages. © 2019 Jillian J. Turanovic and Travis C. Pratt. All rights reserved.
Drugs in Society: Causes, Concepts, and Control, Eighth Edition, focuses on the many critical areas of America’s drug problem, providing a foundation for rational decision-making within this complex and multidisciplinary field. Lyman offers a comprehensive big-picture examination of the US drug problem, dealing with drugs, abusers, drug enforcement, and public policy. Organized in three sections: Understanding the Problem, Gangs and Drugs, and Fighting Back, topics covered include the business of drugs and the role of organized crime in the drug trade, drug legalization and decriminalization, legal and law enforcement strategies, an analysis of the socialization process of drug use and abuse, and a historical discussion of drug abuse that puts the contemporary drug problem into perspective. Suitable for upper-level undergraduates in Criminal Justice, Criminology, and related programs, Drugs in Society, Eighth Edition, uses logical organization and strong pedagogy (case studies, focused text boxes with related information, critical thinking tasks) to support learning objectives.
Asset forfeiture has proven highly controversial in the United States since its expansion in 1984. Most controversial is the widespread policy that allows police agencies to keep the assets seized, which both proponents and critics assert changes police behavior. From newly developed panel data sets, we find some statistical support for the proposition that police agencies change the intensity and pattern of crime policing in response to forfeiture. However, in economic terms these effects are very weak and do not support the proposition that forfeiture provides vital funds and incentives for crime policing.The Data Notes for this paper are available at the following URL: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2394360
Collaboration between law enforcement agencies, at all levels of government, has been identified as a salient component of post–September 11 policing. This study surveys a representative sample of Texas police chiefs concerning their perceptions of the level of collaboration that is occurring between their respective departments and federal agencies. Results suggest that the majority of chiefs hold generally low perceptions of federal-local collaboration. Furthermore, regression analyses show that preparedness and departmental strategy perceptions are predictive of federal-local collaboration. Regarding structural factors, chiefs of large departments as well as university departments are more likely to report higher levels of collaboration with federal agencies. Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed.
This review is the second in a special annual feature in Police Practice & Research: An International Journal. It provides a cross-sectional analysis of the police literature for the year 2001 highlighting the substantive typologies that the literature falls under as well as publication mediums and methodological trends. In doing so, the authors provide a 'snapshot' of the current research trends in policing and, using the results of their 2000 review as a baseline, state both substantive and methodological research patterns in this specific field of criminology.
The argument is presented that, is contrast to expectations, the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act (CAFRA) of 2000 will not be responsible for significant change in the practice of civil asset forfeiture, that the Act is a sheep in wolf's clothing. While it has ushered in some important procedural changes, CAFRA does not address several of what critics perceive to be the most significant problems associated with civil asset forfeiture, among them are a questionable standard of proof, equitable sharing, and the so-called “taint doctrine.” Thus, it is likely that civil asset forfeiture will continue to be a valuable law enforcement tool in the war on drugs.
Drug arrests have increased steadily for going on 30 years, yet drug use has fluctuated wildly during the same period. Some have argued (and found) that state forfeiture laws may explain variation in drug arrests. Using data from 572 law enforcement agencies, we sought to replicate such findings and test their robustness by invoking a variety of forfeiture measures. Our findings indicate that drug asset forfeiture laws (and even past forfeiture activities) have no discernible effect on drug arrest rates.
Critics have argued that asset forfeiture encourages policing for profit, but their arguments have yet to transcend the anecdotal arena. We gathered data on asset forfeiture payments from a multistate sample of 572 law enforcement agencies and tested two hypotheses aimed at answering the question, is policing for profit? Although we found no clear evidence of more forfeiture in states that permit local agencies to receive the most proceeds, we did find that local law-enforcement agencies circumvent restrictive state laws (those placing limits on the proceeds they can receive) by teaming up with federal officials to participate in so-called adoptive forfeitures, which permit them to receive equitable sharing payments. This latter finding was robust to numerous specifications, not altered in models estimated on various subsamples, and not affected by extreme values.
Our study lends a measure of support to the arguments espoused by forfeiture's critics, namely that forfeiture may be pursued for financial reasons. We cannot, however, assert that policing for profit is necessarily problematic, as it is difficult to fault financially strapped public agencies for seeking needed resources. Nor can we assert that forfeiture supersedes other criminal justice goals, such as enforcement of antidrug laws.
The Biolog technique was introduced into ecological studies to estimate metabolic potential of microbial communities. While utilizing carbon substrates (95 or 31×3, depending on the plate type), microbes reduce a colourless dye to violet formazan. The colour is measured spectrophotometrically. This is a rapid and quite convenient method but it has many drawbacks - for example, only microbes that are cultivable and able to grow in high-nutrient conditions contribute to substrate utilization. The method was used mainly to investigate microbial communities from bulk and rhizosphere soil and to estimate the impact of stressors on soil microbial communities.
Bleaching manifests itself as a loss of symbiotic dinoflagellates (zooxanthellae) and/or chlorophyll from a variety of symbiotic hosts, including corals and sea anemones. Bleaching is known to result from a range of environmental stresses, the most significant of which is elevated temperature; how these stresses elicit a bleaching response is currently the focus of intense research. One consequence of environmental stress that has yet to be considered is viral attack. Here, we have isolated a transferable infectious agent believed to be a virus, from zooxanthellae of the temperate sea anemone Anemonia viridis. The infectious agent is induced by elevated temperature. Once induced, the filterable agent can be further propagated without heat induction, thus fulfilling Koch's postulates. We propose that zooxanthellae harbor a latent viral infection that is induced by exposure to elevated temperatures. If such a mechanism also operates in the zooxanthellae harbored by reef corals, and these viruses kill the symbionts, then this could contribute to temperature-induced bleaching.
The ability of corals to cope with environmental change, such as increased temperature, relies on the physiological mechanisms of acclimatisation and long-term genetic adaptation. We experimentally examined the bleaching sensitivity exhibited by 2 species of coral, Pocillopora damicornis and Turbinaria reniformis, at 3 locations across a latitudinal gradient of almost 6 degrees on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Target bleaching temperature was reached by using a ramping rate of 0.2 degrees C/h. We found that the bleaching sensitivity and recovery of both species differed between corals with clade D symbionts and those with clade C. However, in F damicornis bleaching susceptibility corresponded more strongly with latitude than with zooxanthella type and hence, temperature history, suggesting that local adaptation has occurred. The observed bleaching sensitivity was shown by a decrease in photochemical efficiency (F-v/F-m) in both species of coral. The rate of recovery in T reniformis was highest in explants containing clade D symbionts. The occurrence of clade D in the northern section of the GBR may reflect a long-term response to high sea water temperatures, while the presence of clade D in low abundance in T reniformis at Heralds Prong Reef and Percy Island may be a result of recent bleaching events.
Functional diversity and aminopeptidase activity (AMA) in bacterial assemblages were determined in western Antarctic waters during late spring 2002. Functional diversity was assayed by the patterns of sole carbon source utilization in Biolog-ECO Microplates(TM) and AMA with the fluorogenic substrate leucine 7-amido-4-methylcoumarin. N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and D-cellobiose were the most used carbohydrates. This suggested that used dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was mostly of either zoo-or phytoplankton origin. Principal component analysis of the sole carbon source utilization profiles separated the samples according to salinity and temperature. This separation corresponded roughly with the 3 areas of study: Bransfield Strait (BR), Gerlache Strait (GE) and Belling-shausen Sea (BE). AMA was higher in the upper 40 m, probably associated with the higher organic matter load. Phytoplankton biomass was the factor that accounted for the highest variance in AMA, but did not have a clear influence on functional diversity of bacterioplankton. Our findings indicate that differences in functional diversity of bacterioplankton populations in western Antarctic waters are not directly related to phytoplanktonic abundance. This suggests that bacteria could utilize other carbon sources than DOC freshly released by phytoplankton.
Nitrogen fixation, as measured by acetylene reduct~on, has been detected to be associated with various hermatypic corals. Experiments were carried out on the massive coral Favia f a v u s both in situ and in the laboratory. Nitrogen fixation activity was found to be light dependent and fully inhibited by 5 X 10-6 M DCMU [3-(3,4-dichloropheny1)-1,l-dimethylurea Addition of glucose restored nitrogen fixation activity both in the dark and in the presence of DCMU. Removal of the coral tissue prevented acetylene reduction, while addition of glucose to the coral skeleton restored this activity. Bacteria isolated from the coral skeleton were found by dot blotting to contain the nif H gene. These results suggest that nitrogen-fixing bacteria found in the skeleton of corals benefit from organic carbon excreted by the coral tissue. The interaction between the nitrogen-fixing organisms and the coral may be of major lrnportance for the nitrogen budget of the corals.
Coral reefs are the most biodiverse of all marine ecosystems; however, very little is known about prokaryotic diversity in these systems. To address this issue, we sequenced over 1000 bacterial 16S rDNAs from 3 massive coral species (Montastraea franksi, Diploria strigosa, and Porites astreoides) in Panama and Bermuda. Analysis of only 14 coral samples yielded 430 distinct bacterial ribotypes. Statistical analyses suggest that additional sequencing would have resulted in a total of 6000 bacterial ribotypes. Half of the sequences shared
Laboratory aquaria experiments demonstrated that Vibrio AK-1 caused rapid and extensive bleaching of Oculina patagonica at 29°C, slower and less complete bleaching at 25°C and 20°C, and no bleaching at 16°C. The effects of temperature on the bacteria-induced bleaching experiments in aquaria were consistent with the natural bleaching of O. patagonica in the Mediterranean Sea. In situ bleaching increased rapidly from late May to September, following the rise of surface seawater temperature, which reaches 29°C in August. During the winter, when the seawater temperature drops to 16°C, most of the bleached coral colonies recovered. Vibrio AK-1 was isolated from all bleached corals examined in the summer, but could not be isolated from healthy (unbleached) corals in the summer or from bleached and unbleached corals in the winter. The mechanism by which increased temperature causes the coral bleaching by Vibrio AK-1 is at present not clear. The bacteria grow in the laboratory relatively rapidly at 16°C (doubling time 2 h), indicating that bacterial growth is probably not the critical factor. We suggest that temperature-regulated factors affecting bacterial virulence may play a role in the bleaching process.
Coral bleaching events have increased in frequency and severity, due mainly to elevated water temperature associated with El Niño-related warming and a general global warming trend. We experimentally tested the effects of El Niño-like sea temperature conditions on five reef-building corals in the Gulf of Panama. Branching species (Pocillopora damicornis and Pocillopora elegans) and massive species (Porites lobata, Pavona clavus and Pavona gigantea) were exposed to experimentally elevated seawater temperature, ∼1-2°C above ambient. Differences in zooxanthellate coral responses to bleaching and ability to recover were compared and quantified. All corals exposed to high temperature treatment exhibited significant declines in zooxanthellae densities and chlorophyll a concentrations. Pocilloporid species were the most sensitive, being the first to bleach, and suffered the highest mortality (50% after 50 d exposure). Massive coral species demonstrated varying tolerances, but were generally less affected. P. gigantea exhibited the greatest resistance to bleaching, with no lethal effects observed. Maximum experimental recovery was observed in P. lobata. No signs of recovery occurred in P. clavus, as zooxanthellae densities and chlorophyll a concentrations continued to decline under ambient (control) conditions. Experimental coral responses from populations in an upwelling environment are contrasted with field responses observed in a nonupwelling area during the 1997-98 El Niño-Southern Oscillation event.
Caribbean populations of the elkhorn
coral Acropora palmata have declined due to environmental
stress, bleaching, and disease. Potential
sources of coral mortality include invasive microbes
that become trapped in the surface mucus and thrive
under conditions of increased coral stress. In this
study, mucus from healthy A. palmata inhibited
growth of potentially invasive microbes by up to
10-fold. Among cultured bacteria from the mucus of
A. palmata, 20 % displayed antibiotic activity against
one or more tester strains, including the pathogen
implicated in white pox disease. A novel mucusmediated
selection for coral symbionts revealed a
discrete subset of bacteria and selected for isolates
that produce antibiotics. This result suggests that coral
mucus plays a role in the structuring of beneficial
coral-associated microbial communities and implies a
microbial contribution to the antibacterial activity
described for coral mucus. Interestingly, antibiotic
activity was lost when mucus was collected during a
summer bleaching event. Isolates from apparently
healthy A. palmata tissue during this event lacked
antibiotic-producing bacteria and were dominated
by members of the genus Vibrio, including species
implicated in temperature-dependent bleaching of
corals worldwide. This indicates an environmental
shift from beneficial bacteria, and variability in the
protective qualities of coral mucus, which may lead
to an overgrowth of opportunistic microbes when
temperatures increase. Finally, coral mucus inhibited
antibiotic activity and pigment production in a potentially
invasive bacterium, illustrating that coral mucus
may inactivate mechanisms used for bacterial niche
establishment.
Branch tips from colonies of a staghorn coral Acropora formosa were exposed to elevated concentrations of copper in order to examine the potential of the 'bleaching' response a s a means of assessing stress in corals. Two identical toxicity tests were conducted over 48 h using 2 colonies with naturally different algal (zooxanthellae) densities. The tlps from both colonies bleached in proportion to the copper concentratlons, through loss of zooxanthellae to the surrounding water A higher inci-dence of mortality was observed In tips from the colony with fewer zooxanthellae. During the tests, con-trol corals lost zooxanthellae at a rate of c 1 % of the algal standing stock d-', zooxanthellae release from both control and experimental corals occurred 2 x faster d u r ~ n g the daytime than night time, and the number of zooxanthellae appearing as doublets (the mitotic index) was 5 to 8 x higher in zooxanthellae released from the corals' tips than inside the tips (in hospite) a t the end of the experiment. The impli-cations of these findings for future toxicity tests using the bleaching response, and for using changes in the number of zooxanthellae appearing as doublets to assess stress are discussed. Results suggest (1) that loss of zooxanthellae can be used within the framework of a standardised laboratory-based bioassay with universal integrity for assessing stress in zooxanthellate corals, and (2) that inherent dif-ferences in the densities of zooxanthellae between coral colonies are likely to affect the outcome of experiments using the bleaching response and of other biochemical or physiological stress responses.
Histological examination of bleached tissues from the reef corals Goniastrea aspera, G. retiformis, Favites abdita, Coeloseris mayeri, Goniopora pandoraensis, and Galaxea fascicularis subjected to increased seawater temperatures and possibly increased irradiance in the field, revealed a reduction in zooxanthellae density between 50 and 90% (depending on species) compared with the zooxanthellae complement of normally-coloured corals. The study revealed a number of cellular mechanisms which would result in reduced zooxanthellae densities in bleached corals. These included degeneration of zooxanthellae in situ, release of zooxanthellae from mesenterial filaments and, for two species in an advanced state of bleaching, release of algae within host cells which became detached from the endoderm. The existence of a number of cellular mechanisms of zooxanthellae loss in naturally-bleached tissues contrasts with previous descriptions of a single predominant mechanism of zooxanthellae release in laboratory simulations, and highlights the importance of complementing laboratory studies with relevant field observations.
The importance of associations between microorganisms and their invertebrate hosts is becoming increasingly apparent. An emerging field, driven by the necessity to understand the microbial relationships that both maximize coral health and cause coral disease, is the study of coral-bacteria interactions. In this article, we review our current understanding of the diversity, specificity, development, and functions of coral-associated bacteria. We also summarize what is known regarding the role of coral microbiota in the health and disease of coral. We conduct a meta-analysis to determine whether the presence of unique taxa correlates with the state of coral health (i.e. healthy, diseased or bleached), as well as whether coral reef habitats harbor clusters of distinct taxa. We find that healthy and bleached corals harbor similar dominant taxa, although bleached corals had higher proportions of Vibrio and Acidobacteria. Diseased corals generally had more Rhodobacter, Clostridia, and Cyanobacteria sequences, and fewer Oceanospirillum sequences. We caution, however, that while 16S rRNA is useful for microbial species identification, it is a poor predictor of habitat or lifestyle, and care should be taken in interpretation of 16S rRNA surveys to identify potential pathogens amongst complex coral-microbial assemblages. Finally, we highlight evidence that coral-bacterial assemblages could be sensitive to the effects of climatic change. We suggest that the relationship between coral and their bacterial associates represents a valuable model that can be applied to the broader discipline of invertebrate-microbial interactions.
Determining stressor-response relationships in reef building corals continues to be a critical research need due to global declines in coral reef ecosystems and projected declines for the future. A simplified recirculating coral exposure system was coupled to a solar simulator to allow laboratory testing of a diversity of species and morphologies of reef building corals under ecologically relevant conditions of temperature and solar radiation. Combinations of lamps and attenuating filters allowed for assignment of solar radiation treatments in experimental bleaching studies. Three bleaching experiments were performed using the reef building coral, Pocillopora damicornis, to assess the reproducibility of system performance and coral responses under control and stress conditions. Experiments showed consistent temperature- and solar radiation dependent-changes in pigment, numbers of symbiotic algae, photosystem II quantum yield, and tissue loss during exposure and recovery. The laboratory exposure system is recommended for use in experimental bleaching studies with reef building corals.
Colonies of the Caribbean coral Montastraea cavernosa (Linnaeus) that harbor endosymbiotic cyanobacteria can fix nitrogen, whereas conspecifics without these symbionts cannot. The pattern of nitrogen fixation is diurnal and maximum rates occur in the early morning and evening. An analysis of delta N-15 stable isotope data showed that the zooxanthellae, but not the animal tissue, from colonies with cyanobacteria preferentially use the products derived from nitrogen fixation, and that these zooxanthellae also have a greater DNA content per cell, suggesting that these cells are in the DNA synthesis (S) and gap (G(2)) + Mitosis (M) phase of their cell cyle and are preparing to undergo cell division. Since nitrogen fixation did not occur during those times of the day when hyperoxia is known to occur, low oxygen concentrations might be required to support cyanobacterial respiration and provide the energy needed to fix nitrogen because the reaction centers of these cyanobacteria are uncoupled from light harvesting accessory pigments and the photosynthetic electron transport chain. Consistent with this were the depleted delta C-13 stable isotope signatures in all compartments of those corals with symbiotic cyanobacteria, which show an increase in heterotrophy compared with samples of M. cavernosa without cyanobacteria. Using modeled underwater light fields and measurements of photosynthesis, we show that the amount of time in which nitrogen fixation in these corals can take place increases with depth and that the distribution of corals with symbiotic cyanobacteria is positively correlated with increasing depth. The results presented here show that the zooxanthellae of M. cavernosa acquire nitrogen from cyanobacterial nitrogen fixation. Given that nitrogen limitation has long been proposed to contribute to the stability of these symbiotic associations, the mechanism by which zooxanthellae symbiosis in these corals is maintained remains an important question and the subject of future study.
The coral holobiont is the community of metazoans, protists and microbes associated with scleractinian corals. Disruptions in these associations have been correlated with coral disease, but little is known about the series of events involved in the shift from mutualism to pathogenesis. To evaluate structural and functional changes in coral microbial communities, Porites compressa was exposed to four stressors: increased temperature, elevated nutrients, dissolved organic carbon loading and reduced pH. Microbial metagenomic samples were collected and pyrosequenced. Functional gene analysis demonstrated that stressors increased the abundance of microbial genes involved in virulence, stress resistance, sulfur and nitrogen metabolism, motility and chemotaxis, fatty acid and lipid utilization, and secondary metabolism. Relative changes in taxonomy also demonstrated that coral-associated microbiota (Archaea, Bacteria, protists) shifted from a healthy-associated coral community (e.g. Cyanobacteria, Proteobacteria and the zooxanthellae Symbiodinium) to a community (e.g. Bacteriodetes, Fusobacteria and Fungi) of microbes often found on diseased corals. Additionally, low-abundance Vibrio spp. were found to significantly alter microbiome metabolism, suggesting that the contribution of a just a few members of a community can profoundly shift the health status of the coral holobiont.
Marine bacteria play a central role in the degradation of dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) to dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and acrylic acid, DMS being critical to cloud formation and thereby cooling effects on the climate. High concentrations of DMSP and DMS have been reported in scleractinian coral tissues although, to date, there have been no investigations into the influence of these organic sulfur compounds on coral-associated bacteria. Two coral species, Montipora aequituberculata and Acropora millepora, were sampled and their bacterial communities were characterized by both culture-dependent and molecular techniques. Four genera, Roseobacter, Spongiobacter, Vibrio, and Alteromonas, which were isolated on media with either DMSP or DMS as the sole carbon source, comprised the majority of clones retrieved from coral mucus and tissue 16S rRNA gene clone libraries. Clones affiliated with Roseobacter sp. constituted 28% of the M. aequituberculata tissue libraries, while 59% of the clones from the A. millepora libraries were affiliated with sequences related to the Spongiobacter genus. Vibrio spp. were commonly isolated from DMS and acrylic acid enrichments and were also present in 16S rRNA gene libraries from coral mucus, suggesting that under "normal" environmental conditions, they are a natural component of coral-associated communities. Genes homologous to dddD, and dddL, previously implicated in DMSP degradation, were also characterized from isolated strains, confirming that bacteria associated with corals have the potential to metabolize this sulfur compound when present in coral tissues. Our results demonstrate that DMSP, DMS, and acrylic acid potentially act as nutrient sources for coral-associated bacteria and that these sulfur compounds are likely to play a role in structuring bacterial communities in corals, with important consequences for the health of both corals and coral reef ecosystems.
Coral bleaching caused by global warming is one of the major threats to coral reefs. Very recently, research has focused on the possibility of corals switching symbionts as a means of adjusting to accelerating increases in sea surface temperature. Although symbionts are clearly of fundamental importance, many aspects of coral bleaching cannot be readily explained by differences in symbionts among coral species. Here we outline several potential mechanisms by which the host might influence the bleaching response, and conclude that predicting the fate of corals in response to climate change requires both members of the symbiosis to be considered equally.
During the last several decades corals have been in decline and at least one-third of all coral species are now threatened with extinction. Coral disease has been a major contributor to this threat, but little is known about the responsible pathogens. To date most research has focused on bacterial and fungal diseases; however, viruses may also be important for coral health. Using a combination of empirical viral metagenomics and real-time PCR, we show that Porites compressa corals contain a suite of eukaryotic viruses, many related to the Herpesviridae. This coral-associated viral consortium was found to shift in response to abiotic stressors. In particular, when exposed to reduced pH, elevated nutrients, and thermal stress, the abundance of herpes-like viral sequences rapidly increased in 2 separate experiments. Herpes-like viral sequences were rarely detected in apparently healthy corals, but were abundant in a majority of stressed samples. In addition, surveys of the Nematostella and Hydra genomic projects demonstrate that even distantly related Cnidarians contain numerous herpes-like viral genes, likely as a result of latent or endogenous viral infection. These data support the hypotheses that corals experience viral infections, which are exacerbated by stress, and that herpes-like viruses are common in Cnidarians.
• coral reefs
• disease
• Herpesviridae
• viral-like particles
• virome
The frequent discrepancy between direct microscopic counts and numbers of culturable bacteria from environmental samples is just one of several indications that we currently know only a minor part of the diversity of microorganisms in nature. A combination of direct retrieval of rRNA sequences and whole-cell oligonucleotide probing can be used to detect specific rRNA sequences of uncultured bacteria in natural samples and to microscopically identify individual cells. Studies have been performed with microbial assemblages of various complexities ranging from simple two-component bacterial endosymbiotic associations to multispecies enrichments containing magnetotactic bacteria to highly complex marine and soil communities. Phylogenetic analysis of the retrieved rRNA sequence of an uncultured microorganism reveals its closest culturable relatives and may, together with information on the physicochemical conditions of its natural habitat, facilitate more directed cultivation attempts. For the analysis of complex communities such as multispecies biofilms and activated-sludge flocs, a different approach has proven advantageous. Sets of probes specific to different taxonomic levels are applied consecutively beginning with the more general and ending with the more specific (a hierarchical top-to-bottom approach), thereby generating increasingly precise information on the structure of the community. Not only do rRNA-targeted whole-cell hybridizations yield data on cell morphology, specific cell counts, and in situ distributions of defined phylogenetic groups, but also the strength of the hybridization signal reflects the cellular rRNA content of individual cells. From the signal strength conferred by a specific probe, in situ growth rates and activities of individual cells might be estimated for known species. In many ecosystems, low cellular rRNA content and/or limited cell permeability, combined with background fluorescence, hinders in situ identification of autochthonous populations. Approaches to circumvent these problems are discussed in detail.
The aetiological agent of bleaching of the coral Oculina patagonica was characterized as a new Vibrio species on the basis of 16S rDNA sequence, DNA-DNA hybridization data and phenotypic properties, including the cellular fatty acid profile. Based on its 16S rDNA and DNA-DNA hybridization, the new Vibrio species is closely related to Vibrio mediterranei. The name Vibrio shiloi sp. nov. is proposed for the new coral-bleaching species, the type strain being AK1T (= ATCC BAA-91T = DSM 13774T).
Mass coral bleaching is linked to elevated sea surface temperatures, 1-2 degrees C above average, during periods of intense light. These conditions induce the expulsion of zooxanthellae from the coral host in response to photosynthetic damage in the algal symbionts. The mechanism that triggers this release has not been clearly established and to further our knowledge of this process, fluorescence rise kinetics have been studied for the first time. Corals that were exposed to elevated temperature (33 degrees C) and light (280 mumol photons m(-2) s(-1)), showed distinct changes in the fast polyphasic induction of chlorophyll-a fluorescence, indicating biophysical changes in the photochemical processes. The fluorescence rise over the first 2000ms was monitored in three species of corals for up to 8 h, with a PEA fluorometer and an imaging-PAM. Pocillopora damicornis showed the least impact on photosynthetic apparatus, while Acropora nobilis was the most sensitive, with Cyphastrea serailia intermediate between the other two species. A. nobilis showed a remarkable capacity for recovery from bleaching conditions. For all three species, a steady decline in the slope of the initial rise and the height of the J-transient was observed, indicating the loss of functional Photosystem II (PS II) centres under elevated-temperature conditions. A significant loss of PS II centres was confirmed by a decline in photochemical quenching when exposed to bleaching stress. Non-photochemical quenching was identified as a significant mechanism for dissipating excess energy as heat under the bleaching conditions. Photophosphorylation could explain this decline in PS II activity. State transitions, a component of non-photochemical quenching, was a probable cause of the high non-photochemical quenching during bleaching and this mechanism is associated with the phosphorylation-induced dissociation of the light harvesting complexes from the PS II reaction centres. This reversible process may account for the coral recovery, particularly in A. nobilis.
Changes in metabolic capabilities of bacterial communities along the estuarine salinity gradient may affect the extent of organic matter processing and bacterial growth and accumulation during transit through the system; As part of a larger study of estuarine microbial processes, we attempted to quantify differences in bacterial community structure using Biolog plates. Biolog GN plates (Biolog, Inc., Hayward, CA, USA) were used to determine differences in bacterioplankton community metabolic potential. Biolog GN microplates are 96-well microtiter plates in which each well contains an individual carbon source as well the redox dye tetrazolium violet. As bacteria grow and oxidize each substrate, a purple color is formed that can be quantified spectrophotometrically. The resultant patterns are a function of the original community inoculated into the sample wells. Samples were taken weekly from May 1997 through May 1998 at a fixed location. Samples were also collected bi-monthly from July 1997 through May 1998 at 6 stations located along the salinity gradient. Principal component analysis shows clear differences in the patterns of community metabolic capabilities along the salinity gradient. Bacterial communities were separated by both temperature and salinity. Rates of color development mimicked the pattern of a strong landward gradient in specific growth rates. Biolog analysis is shown to be a powerful tool for identifying shifts in bacterial community composition in space and time, and provides a useful guide for deeper analysis of bulk property data.
During the past decade, acute and chronic bleaching of tropical reef corals has occurred with in- creasing frequency and scale. Bleaching, i.e., the loss of pigment and the decrease in population density of sym- biotic dinoflagellates (zooxanthellae), is often correlated with an increase or decrease in sea surface temperature. Because little is known of the cellular events concomitant with thermal bleaching, we have investigated the mech- anism of release of zooxanthellae by the tropical sea ane- mone Aiptasia pulchella and the reef coral Pocillopora damicornis in response to cold and heat stress. Both spe- cies released intact host endoderm cells containing zoox- anthellae. The majority of the released host cells were viable, but they soon disintegrated in the seawater leaving behind isolated zooxanthellae. The detachment and re- lease of intact host cells suggests that thermal stress causes host cell adhesion dysfunction in these cnidarians. Knowledge of the cellular entity released by the host dur- ing bleaching provides insight into both the underlying release mechanism and the way in which natural envi- ronmental stresses evoke a bleaching response.
Sea temperatures in many tropical regions have increased by almost 1°C over the past 100 years, and are currently increasing at ~1-2°C per century. Coral bleaching occurs when the thermal tolerance of corals and their photosynthetic symbionts (zooxanthellae) is exceeded. Mass coral bleaching has occurred in association with episodes of elevated sea temperatures over the past 20 years and involves the loss of the zooxanthellae following chronic photoinhibition. Mass bleaching has resulted in significant losses of live coral in many parts of the world. This paper considers the biochemical, physiological and ecological perspectives of coral bleaching. It also uses the outputs of four runs from three models of global climate change which simulate changes in sea temperature and hence how the frequency and intensity of bleaching events will change over the next 100 years. The results suggest that the thermal tolerances of reef-building corals are likely to be exceeded every year within the next few decades. Events as severe as the 1998 event, the worst on record, are likely to become commonplace within 20 years. Most information suggests that the capacity for acclimation by corals has already been exceeded, and that adaptation will be too slow to avert a decline in the quality of the world's reefs. The rapidity of the changes that are predicted indicates a major problem for tropical marine ecosystems and suggests that unrestrained warming cannot occur without the loss and degradation of coral reefs on a global scale.
The external mucus layers of the stony coral Porites astreoides and the soft corals Palythoa sp. and Heteroxenia fuscesens are inhabited by communities of marine heterotrophic bacteria. Population levels of bacteria in coral mucus may be regulated by the self-cleaning behavior of the host. Bacterial populations in coral mucus respond to stresses applied to the host coral by growing to higher population levels in the mucus, indicating that these are populations of viable organisms closely attuned to host metabolism. Members of these microbial populations utilize the mucus compounds and may play a role in processing coral mucus for reef detritus feeders. One such species, Vibrio alginolyticus, grows rapidly on Heteroxenia mucus, is attracted to dissolved mucus, and possesses a mechanism to maintain itself on the coral surface.
We dissect the primary photo-inactivation and the counteracting metabolic repair rates in fragments of the scleractinian coral, Pocillopora damicornis, subjected to a combined stress of a shift to elevated temperature (from 26°C to 32°C) and increased light (from 200 µmol photons m−2 s−1 to 400 µmol photons m−2 s−1) to induce bleaching. During the bleaching treatment the dinoflagellate symbionts showed a 5.5-fold acceleration in their photosystem II (PSII) repair rate constant, demonstrating that they maintain strong metabolic capacity to clear and replace photo-damaged D1 protein at the elevated temperature and light conditions. Nevertheless, the symbionts concurrently suffered a seven-fold increase in the rate constant for PSII photo-inactivation. This rapid photo-inactivation exceeded the PSII repair capacity, therefore tipping the symbionts, and by implication the symbiosis, into net photo-inhibition. Increased photo-inactivation in hospite, rather than an inhibition of PSII repair, is the principle trigger for net photo-inhibition under bleaching conditions.
Development of the bacterial community associated with the coral Acropora muricata (=formosa) was monitored using 16S rRNA gene-based techniques and abundance counts over time following experimental modification of the existing microbial community using the antibiotic ciprofloxacin. Abundance of bacteria was reduced [99% by the treatment, resulting in significant changes in bacterial community structure. Following redeployment to their natural environment, some settle-ment and re-growth of bacteria took place within a few hours, including ribosomal types that were not present, or in low abundance, in the natural microbiota. However, complete recovery of the bacterial community required longer than 96 h, which indicates a relatively slow settle-ment and growth of bacteria from the water column and suggests that turnover of the natural community is similarly slow. The early developing community was dominated by antibiotic-resistant bacteria from the natural microbiota that survived the treatment and proliferated in the absence of natural competitors, but also included some non-resident ribotypes colonizing from the water column. Almost, all these opportunists were significantly reduced or eliminated within 96 h after treatment, demonstrating a high resilience in the natural bacterial community. Potential pathogens, including a Clostridium sp., inhabited the coral at low abundances, only becoming prevalent when the natural microbiota was disturbed by the treatment. The healthy coral-associated microbiota appears to be strongly con-trolled by microbial interactions.
Coral reef bleaching, the temporary or permanent loss of photosynthetic microalgae (zooxanthellae) and/or their pigments by a variety of reef taxa, is a stress response usually associated with anthropogenic and natural disturbances. Degrees of bleaching, within and among coral colonies and across reef communities, are highly variable and difficult to quantify, thus complicating comparisons of different bleaching events. Small-scale bleaching events can often be correlated with specific disturbances (e.g. extreme low/high temperatures, low/high solar irradiance, subaerial exposure, sedimentation, freshwater dilution, contaminants, and diseases), whereas large scale (mass) bleaching occurs over 100s to 1000s of km2, which is more difficult to explain. Debilitating effects of bleaching include reduced/no skeletal growth and reproductive activity, and a lowered capacity to shed sediments, resist invasion of competing species and diseases. Severe and prolonged bleaching can cause partial to total colony death, resulting in diminished reef growth, the transformation of reef-building communities to alternate, non-reef building community types, bioerosion and ultimately the disappearance of reef structures. Present evidence suggests that the leading factors responsible for large-scale coral reef bleaching are elevated sea temperatures and high solar irradiance (especially ultraviolet wavelengths), which may frequently act jointly.
Previous studies have attempted to quantify the nutritional importance of zooxanthellae to the respiratory requirements of their host, from measurements of the 24 h photosynthesis to respiration ratio. This preliminary study explores an alternative approach by trying to account for the energy fixed in photosynthesis in terms of expenditure, storage and loss. The energy budget so derived for Pocillopora eydouxi suggests that about 51% of the photosynthetically fixed energy is used in respiration, 0.9% in growth and 48% is unaccounted for and presumably lost from the colony. By partitioning the energy budget, it is found that 24% of the respiration and 11% of the energy retained in growth is attributable to the zooxanthellae. It is postulated that nutritionally, a coral is analogous to an aphid in being supplied with a high carbon diet and in being obliged to excrete the excess, probably in the form of mucus.
The authors investigated the response to experimentally elevated water temperature in genotypes of Pocillopora damicornis from three coral reefs in the upwelling Gulf of Panama and four coral reefs in the non-upwelling Gulf of Chiriqu, Panamanian Pacific. Sea-surface temperature in the Gulf of Panama declines below 20C during seasonal upwelling, while in the thermally stable Gulf of Chiriqu, the temperature ranges from 27 to 29C. Genotypes of P. damicornis from the seven locations were determined by allozyme electrophoresis. The most abundant genotype at each location was selected for a thermal tolerance experiment where corals were exposed to water temperature of 30C (1C above ambient) for 43days. Four site coral genotypes can be uniquely differentiated by the GPI locus, two by the LGG-2 locus, and two by a combination of the MDH-1, LGG-2, and LTY-3 loci. A visual assessment of the coral condition after exposure to an elevated temperature showed that corals from localities in the non-upwelling environment retained a normal to slightly pale appearance, while corals from the upwelling environment bleached and their polyps were mostly retracted. A two-way ANOVA confirmed that corals were significantly affected by water temperature and locality. The zooxanthellae were also significantly affected by the interaction of elevated temperature and locality of the corals. Mean zooxanthellae density decreased by 25 and 55%, respectively, in experimentally heated corals from the non-upwelling and upwelling environments. Low concentrations of photosynthetic pigments per live area of the corals were the norm in corals under elevated temperature. The mean concentration of chlorophyll a per live area of the corals was reduced by 17 and 49%, respectively, in heated corals from the non-upwelling and upwelling sites. Coral genotypes from the upwelling Gulf of Panama demonstrated higher vulnerability to thermal stress than coral genotypes from the non-upwelling Gulf of Chiriqu. However, the latter showed greater differences in their responses. Thus, even at small geographic scales, corals can display different levels of tolerance to thermal stress. The difference in thermal tolerance between corals from upwelling and non-upwelling environments is concomitant with greater genetic differences in experimental corals from the thermally stable Gulf of Chiriqu compared with corals from the upwelling Gulf of Panama.
Corals are constantly exposed to ubiquitous microbes. Detrimental effects of microbes on corals include surface fouling and disease. To prevent fouling and disease, corals need to resist microbial colonization and invasion. One way that this could be achieved is by chemical defense. Extracts from 100 scleractinian coral species (44 genera and 13 families) were screened for antimicrobial activity against seven microbe species (Alteromonas rubra, Photobacterium damsela, Vibrio harveyi, Vibrio alginolyticus, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Synechococcus sp., and Staphylococcus aureus). Activity against Synechococcus sp. (a marine cyanobacterium) was recorded in 100 coral species, and eight of these coral species also inhibited the growth of marine bacteria. The extent of microbial colonization on coral surfaces was assessed in 20 scleractinian species to test the hypothesis that fewer microbes occur on corals that have antimicrobial compounds. Bacterial counts exceeded cyanobacterial counts on coral surfaces, and coral species with antibacterial activity had the fewest bacteria on their surfaces. Thus, corals with less heavily colonized surfaces chemically inhibit microbial colonization.
A coral pathogen was isolated from the diseased tissue of Pocillopora damicornis in Zanzibar. The pathogenic bacterium, referred to as Vibrio coralyticus YB, was classified as a member of the genus Vibrio. Based on its 16S rDNA sequence, V. coralyticus is probably a new species. In controlled aquaria experiments at 26-29C, inoculation of pure cultures of V. coralyticus YB either into the seawater or by direct contact onto the coral caused tissue lysis of P. damicornis fragments. At 29C, lysis began as small white spots after 3-5 days, rapidly spreading so that by 2 weeks the entire tissue was destroyed, leaving only the intact bare skeleton. When an infected diseased coral was placed in direct contact with a healthy one, the healthy coral lysed in 2-4 days, further indicating that the disease was contagious. Inoculation with as few as 30 bacteria ml-1 was sufficient to infect and lyse corals. Seawater temperature was a critical variable for the infectious process: infection and lysis occurred rapidly at 27-29C, slowly at 26C and was not observed at 25C. The data suggest that the presence of V. coralyticus YB, even in low numbers, in seawater surrounding a coral reef will lead to tissue destruction of P. damicornis, when seawater temperatures rise.
It is widely accepted that corals are associated with a diverse and host species-specific microbiota, but how they are organized
within their hosts remains poorly understood. Previous sampling techniques (blasted coral tissues, coral swabs and milked
mucus) may preferentially sample from different compartments such as mucus, tissue and skeleton, or amalgamate them, making
comparisons and generalizations between studies difficult. This study characterized bacterial communities of corals with minimal
mechanical disruption and contamination from water, air and sediments from three compartments: surface mucus layer (SML),
coral tissue and coral skeleton. A novel apparatus (the ‘snot sucker’) was used to separate the SML from tissues and skeleton,
and these three compartments were compared to swab samples and milked mucus along with adjacent environmental samples (water
column and sediments). Bacterial 16S rRNA gene diversity was significantly different between the various coral compartments
and environmental samples (PERMANOVA, F=6.9, df=8, P=0.001), the only exceptions being the complete crushed coral samples and the coral skeleton, which were similar, because
the skeleton represents a proportionally large volume and supports a relatively rich microflora. Milked mucus differed significantly
from the SML collected with the ‘snot sucker’ and was contaminated with zooxanthellae, suggesting that it may originate at
least partially from the gastrovascular cavity rather than the tissue surface. A common method of sampling the SML, surface
swabs, produced a bacterial community profile distinct from the SML sampled using our novel apparatus and also showed contamination
from coral tissues. Our results indicate that microbial communities are spatially structured within the coral holobiont, and
methods used to describe these need to be standardized to allow comparisons between studies.
KeywordsBacterial communities–Corals–Compartments–Mucus–Tissue–Skeleton
Marine viruses were little studied until 1989, when they were discovered to be extremely abundant in the sea. Virology is
now a growing field of science in coral reef research, largely related to an increase in the frequency of coral bleaching
events and other coral diseases. Because viruses are obligate symbionts, they are generally perceived as parasitic and harmful
to their hosts. However, evidence that viruses confer benefits to their hosts is growing and their role as mutualists is emerging.
Here we review both the detrimental and beneficial aspects of viral infections and argue that as the field of coral virology
expands, in addition to their pathogenicity, the idea that viruses represent functionally beneficial components of the coral
holobiont be considered.
KeywordsCoral bleaching-mutualism-parasitism-symbiosis-Scleractinia
The rate of loss of zooxanthellae from intact Pocillopora damicornis (Linnaeus) was determined for colonies growing in laboratory tanks supplied with either ambient seawater or seawater enriched with dissolved inorganic N. Algal release peaked during midday in both treatments. Corals in N-enriched water released 40% more algae · U−1 surface area · day−1 than did control corals. However, algal densities in the N-enriched corals were three times higher than in controls, so specific release rate was lower for N-enriched corals. Lipid content of the N-enriched corals was also lower than in the controls. These results suggest that N enrichment results in: greater algal standing stock and a reduced rate of transfer of photosynthate to the host. N enrichment more than doubled algal densities in this coral indicating that zooxanthellae in situ may be nutrient limited and that algal densities are, to some extent, a function of nutrient levels in the external environment and not entirely regulated by the host.
Soil microbial community structure and function are commonly used as indicators for soil quality and fertility. In this paper, the bacterial community structure and function in a black soil of Dehui region influenced by fertilization were investigated by Biolog and PCR-DGGE (polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis) methods. Biolog examination showed that substrate richness and catabolic diversities of bacterial communities were the highest in the treatment of farm yard manure, and the lowest in the chemical fertilizer treatment. DGGE fingerprint showed that the majority of bands were similar among all treatments, suggesting that microbial communities with those bands were stable, and not influenced by fertilization. In general, chemical fertilizer decreased the diversity of soil bacterial communities. The PCA (principal component analysis) plots of Biolog and DGGE revealed that the structure and function of bacterial communities were similar in the non-fertilized control and the treatment of farm yard manure alone, which inferred that the application of farm yard manure increased the quantity of soil microbes but had less effect on the changes of community structure. The catabolic function was similar, but the composition structure differed between the treatments of chemical fertilizer alone and combined application of farm yard manure with chemical fertilizer. These results suggest that the use of chemical fertilizer mainly decreased the catabolic activity of the fast growth bacteria or eutrophic bacteria.
Individuals in a population of aposymbiotic Aiptasia pulchella Carlgren were each inoculated with homologous zooxanthellae. The rate of repopulation of the anemones (i.e. the in situ growth rate of the zooxanthellae) was determined non-destructively from the mean in vivo fluorescence per anemone over 19 days. As zooxanthellae cell density increased, chlorophyll a per cell increased, but fluorescence per cell decreased, probably as a result of self-shading. The emergent relationship between in vivo fluorescence and number of zooxanthellae was linear over the range of cell densities investigated. The-specific growth rate during exponential growth was 0.4·day−1 between days 7 and 15. As repopulation approached saturation (ca. 0.5 × 106 cells per mg animal soluble protein) at about 19 days, the growth rate decreased and approached the steady state growth rate of about 0.02 · day−1 of normal symbiotic anemones. Rates of repopulation of A. pulchella by freshly isolated and cultured homologous zooxanthellae were virtually identical.
Because of the importance of quantitative determination of protein in the research laboratory as well as in the food and feed industries (1), search for the ideal method continues unabated after many years. Methods available include nitrogen determination (Kjeldahl (2) and Dumas (3)), hydrolysis of the protein, derivatization of the amino acids with phthalaldehyde and fluorescence determination (4), determination of bound or free lysine (5) or glutamate (4), and the Lowry (6), biuret (7) dye-binding (8–11) turbidity (12) and spectral methods (13). With the exception of the spectral methods, the methods involve destruction of the sample.In this paper we report the use of difference in absorbance between 235 and 280 nm for determination of protein concentration.
Photosynthesis of zooxanthellate stony corals may be limited by inorganic carbon at high irradiances. We demonstrated that oxygen consumption of expanded corals is higher than that of contracted corals in both night-expanding and day-expanding corals. It is assumed that at the single-polyp level, the expansion of tentacles increases the surface area for solute exchange with the surrounding water, which may alleviate potential carbon limitation and excess oxygen levels in the tissue under high irradiance. We investigated this hypothesis using stable carbon isotope (613 C) analysis of coral species from the Red Sea exhibiting different morphologies. delta C-13 ratios in zooxanthellae of branched coral colonies with small polyp size that extend their tentacles during daytime (diurnal morphs) showed lower delta C-13 values in their zooxanthellae - 13.83 +/- 1.45 parts per thousand, compared to corals from the same depth with large polyps, which are usually massive and expand their tentacles only at night (nocturnal morphs). Their algae delta C-13 was significantly higher, averaging - 11.33 +/- 0.59 parts per thousand. Carbon isotope budget of the coral tissue suggests that branched corals are more autotrophic, i.e., that they depend on their symbionts for nutrition compared to massive species, which are more heterotrophic and depend on plankton predation. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Microbial communities respond and quickly adapt to disturbance and have central roles in ecosystem function. Yet, the many roles of coral-associated microbial communities are not currently accounted for in predicting future responses of reef ecosystems. Here, we propose that a clearer understanding of coral-associated microbial diversity and its interaction with both host and environment will identify important linkages occurring between the microbial communities and macroecological change. Characterizing these links is fundamental to understanding coral reef resilience and will improve our capacity to predict ecological change.
The early effects of heat stress on the photosynthesis of symbiotic dinoflagellates (zooxanthellae) within the tissues of a reef-building coral were examined using pulse-amplitude-modulated (PAM) chlorophyll fluorescence and photorespirometry. Exposure of Stylophora pistillata to 33 and 34 degrees C for 4 h resulted in (1) the development of strong non-photochemical quenching (qN) of the chlorophyll fluorescence signal, (2) marked decreases in photosynthetic oxygen evolution, and (3) decreases in optimal quantum yield (F-v/F-m) of photosystern II (PSII), Quantum yield decreased to a greater extent on the illuminated surfaces of coral branches than on lower (shaded) surfaces, and also when high irradiance intensities were combined with elevated temperature (33 degrees C as opposed to 28 degrees C), qN collapsed in heat-stressed samples when quenching analysis was conducted in the absence of oxygen, Collectively, these observations are interpreted as the initiation of photoprotective dissipation of excess absorbed energy as heat (qN) and O-2-dependent electron flow through the Mehler-Ascorbate-Peroxidase cycle (MAP-cycle) following the point at which the rate of light-driven electron transport exceeds the capacity of the Calvin cycle. A model for coral bleaching is proposed whereby the primary site of heat damage in S, pistillata is carboxylation within the Calvin cycle, as has been observed during heat damage in higher plants, Damage to PSII and a reduction in F-v/F-m (i.e. photoinhibition) are secondary effects following the overwhelming of photoprotective mechanisms by light. This secondary factor increases the effect of the primary variable, temperature. Potential restrictions of electron flow in heat-stressed zooxanthellae are discussed with respect to Calvin cycle enzymes and the unusual status of the dinoflagellate Rubisco, Significant features of our model are that (1) damage to PSII is not the initial step in the sequence of heat stress in zooxanthellae, acid (2) light plays a key secondary role in the initiation of the bleaching phenomena.
Reef-building corals are comprised of close associations between the coral animal, symbiotic zooxanthellae, and a diversity of associated microbes (including Bacteria, Archaea and Fungi). Together, these comprise the coral holobiont - a paradigm that emphasizes the potential contributions of each component to the overall function and health of the coral. Little is known about the ecology of the coral-associated microbial community and its hypothesized role in coral health. We explored bacteria-bacteria antagonism among 67 bacterial isolates from the scleractinian coral Montastrea annularis at two temperatures using Burkholder agar diffusion assays. A majority of isolates exhibited inhibitory activity (69.6% of isolates at 25 degrees C, 52.2% at 31 degrees C), with members of the gamma-proteobacteria (Vibrionales and Alteromonadales) being especially antagonistic. Elevated temperatures generally reduced levels of antagonism, although the effects were complex. Several potential pathogens were observed in the microbial community of apparently healthy corals, and 11.6% of isolates were able to inhibit the growth of the coral pathogen Vibrio shiloi at 25 degrees C. Overall, this study demonstrates that antagonism could be a structuring force in coral-associated microbial communities and may contribute to pathogenesis as well as disease resistance.
We compared the abilities of Biolog's GN and ECO plates to distinguish among aerobic and heterotrophic bacterial communities in samples from six aquatic environments. The Biolog system is based on interpreting patterns of sole-carbon substrate utilization indicated by color development in a 96-well microtiter plate. Whether of fresh or saltwater origin, bacterial communities utilized > 95% of substrates in both types of plates. Samples from any one environment exhibited similar time courses of average well color development (AWCD) in both GN and ECO plates. Principal component analysis was performed on data sets resulting from combinations of algorithms (AWCD and curve-integration methods) and levels of color development (end-point and set-point approaches). In all cases, the two types of plates demonstrated an equal capacity to discriminate among the heterotrophic expressions of the six microbial communities. Substantial deviation from an anticipated 1:1 correspondence occurred when color development of 25 substrates common to both types of plates was compared. The discrepancies likely are related to the different formulations of low-nutrient media in GN and ECO plates.
Coral bleaching has been defined as a general phenomenon, whereby reef corals turn visibly pale because of the loss of their symbiotic dinoflagellates and/or algal pigments during periods of exposure to elevated seawater temperatures. During the summer of 1997, seawater temperatures in the Florida Keys remained at or above 30 degrees C for more than 6 weeks, and extensive coral bleaching was observed. Bleached colonies of the dominant Caribbean reef-building species, Montastrea faveolata and Montastrea franksi, were sampled over a depth gradient from 1 to 17 m during this period of elevated temperature and contained lower densities of symbiotic dinoflagellates in deeper corals than seen in previous "nonbleaching" years. Fluorescence analysis by pulse-amplitude modulation fluorometry revealed severe damage to photosystem II (PSII) in remaining symbionts within the corals, with greater damage indicated at deeper depths. Dinoflagellates with the greatest loss in PSII activity also showed a significant decline in the D1 reaction center protein of PSII, as measured by immunoblot analysis. Laboratory experiments on the temperature-sensitive species Montastrea annularis, as well as temperature-sensitive and temperature-tolerant cultured symbiotic dinoflagellates, confirmed the temperature-dependent loss of PSII activity and concomitant decrease in D1 reaction center protein seen in symbionts collected from corals naturally bleached on the reef. In addition, variation in PSII repair was detected, indicating that perturbation of PSII protein turnover rates during photoinhibition at elevated temperatures underlies the physiological collapse of symbionts in corals susceptible to heat-induced bleaching.
Coral bleaching and other diseases of corals have increased dramatically during the last few decades. As outbreaks of these diseases are highly correlated with increased sea-water temperature, one of the consequences of global warming will probably be mass destruction of coral reefs. The causative agent(s) of a few of these diseases have been reported: bleaching of Oculina patagonica by Vibrio shiloi; black band disease by a microbial consortium; sea-fan disease (aspergillosis) by Aspergillus sydowii; and coral white plague possibly by Sphingomonas sp. In addition, we have recently discovered that Vibrio coralyticus is the aetiological agent for bleaching the coral Pocillopora damicornis in the Red Sea. In the case of coral bleaching by V. shiloi, the major effect of increasing temperature is the expression of virulence genes by the pathogen. At high summer sea-water temperatures, V. shiloi produces an adhesin that allows it to adhere to a beta-galactoside-containing receptor in the coral mucus, penetrate into the coral epidermis, multiply intracellularly, differentiate into a viable-but-not-culturable (VBNC) state and produce toxins that inhibit photosynthesis and lyse the symbiotic zooxanthellae. In black band disease, sulphide is produced at the coral-microbial biofilm interface, which is probably responsible for tissue death. Reports of newly emerging coral diseases and the lack of epidemiological and biochemical information on the known diseases indicate that this will become a fertile area of research in the interface between microbial ecology and infectious disease.
Colonies of the Caribbean coral Montastraea cavernosa exhibit a solar-stimulated orange-red fluorescence that is spectrally similar to a variety of fluorescent proteins expressed by corals. The source of this fluorescence is phycoerythrin in unicellular, nonheterocystis, symbiotic cyanobacteria within the host cells of the coral. The cyanobacteria coexist with the symbiotic dinoflagellates (zooxanthellae) of the coral and express the nitrogen-fixing enzyme nitrogenase. The presence of this prokaryotic symbiont in a nitrogen-limited zooxanthellate coral suggests that nitrogen fixation may be an important source of this limiting element for the symbiotic association.
The microbial community associated with the reef building coral Pocillopora damicornis located on the Great Barrier Reef was investigated using culture-independent molecular microbial techniques. The microbial communities of three separate coral colonies were assessed using clone library construction alongside restriction fragment length polymorphism and phylogenetic analysis. Diversity was also investigated spatially across six replicate samples within each single coral colony using 16S rDNA and rpoB-DGGE analysis. Clone libraries demonstrated that the majority of retrieved sequences from coral tissue slurry libraries affiliated with gamma-Proteobacteria. This contrasted with clone libraries of seawater and coral mucus, which were dominated by alpha-Proteobacteria. A number of retrieved clone sequences were conserved between coral colonies; a result consistent with previous studies suggesting a specific microbe-coral association. rpoB-DGGE patterns of replicate tissue slurry samples underestimated microbial diversity, but demonstrated that fingerprints were identical within the same coral. These fingerprints were also conserved across coral colonies. The 16S rDNA-DGGE patterns of replicate tissue slurry samples were more complex, although non-metric multidimensional scaling (nMDS) analysis showed groupings of these banding patterns indicating that some bacterial diversity was uniform within a coral colony. Sequence data retrieved from DGGE analysis support clone library data in that the majority of affiliations were within the gamma-Proteobacteria. Many sequences retrieved also affiliated closely with sequences derived from previous studies of microbial diversity of healthy corals in the Caribbean. Clones showing high 16S rDNA sequence identity to both Vibrio shiloi and Vibrio coralliilyticus were retrieved, suggesting that these may be opportunist pathogens. Comparisons of retrieved microbial diversity between two different sampling methods, a syringe extracted coral mucus sample and an airbrushed coral tissue slurry sample were also investigated. Non-metric multidimensional scaling of clone library data highlighted that clone diversity retrieved from a coral mucus library more closely reflected the diversity of surrounding seawater than a corresponding coral tissue clone library.