A new indicator of coral health has been discovered by researchers at the University of Hawai'i.

The indicators are in a community of microscopic single-celled algae called dinoflagellates, according to a H study that was released in the July 8 edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

According to the study the research reveals that a particular type of the algae renders corals more susceptible to disease.

Previously been considered that all dinoflagellates found in coral are equally beneficial to their coral host, but in this study UH researchers discovered evidence that a particular type of dinoflagellate can be found in corals that are diseased or show evidence of having had a disease.

The researchers sampled corals that appeared healthy and corals that appeared diseased from French Frigate Shoals in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI). By using genetic analyses, they were able to identify the type of dinoflagellate that was present in each of these corals.

They found that the healthy coral contained one type of dinoflagellate and the diseased coral contained a different type of symbiont, the article said.