Brain coral is mainly distributed in the Great Lameshur Bay of the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. It has very rare species, but the bleaching pheomenon is severe. In this study, the numbers and bleaching rates of brain corals in the sampling plots were investigated, and the trace elements contents in the seawater were determined with inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry （ICP- MS）. Then the correlation between the bleaching rate of brain coral and trace elements contents in seawater was analyzed. The results showed that under temperature of 27.83-28.88 ℃, pH of 8.5-8.7, salinity of 32.74%-34.04% and depth of 0-4 m, there were V, Cr, Rb, Sr, Ag and other trace elements in seawater. When the V content was lower than 99.1 ng/ml, the bleaching rate of brain coral was weakly correlated to V content in seawater; when the Cr content was lower than 23.5 ng/ml, the bleaching rate of brain coral was correlated to Cr content; when the Ag content ranged from 34.1-56.3 ng/ml, there was a significant correlation between bleaching rate of brain coral and Ag content in seawater .
