Queensland scientists say they are aiming to develop a quick diagnostic test for diseased coral reefs.
Researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in north Queensland are planning to use technology from human diagnostic tests to identify pathogens in coral.
Dr David Bourne says in the past researchers have had to rely on visual clues.
"There's been no way to actually identify what has caused a lot of those diseases," he said.
"If we can rapidly go out and identify what is the cause and if it is a bacterial origin or a microbial origin, we can rapidly diagnose it, and then have some management issues or management practices to try and prevent or mitigate those disease outbreaks."
Dr Bourne says better testing could see diagnosis times reduced from two weeks to a day.
"Just as in human health, we need to understand what's causing the disease and how it affects the organism, how it affects our human body, we do the same with corals," he said.
"We go out there and try and identify what the organism is - if it is an organism that in fact causes the disease and then try and characterise that by using genetic-based techniques."
