Conclusion: The diodiversity of disease
Wares, J.P.; Blakeslee, A.M.H.; Byers, J.E. (2026). Conclusion: The diodiversity of disease, in: Byers, J.E. et al. The ecology and evolution of marine parasites and disease. Ecology and evolution of infectious diseases series, : pp. 344-348. https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/9780197790847.003.0020
In: Byers, J.E.; Blakeslee, A.M.H.; Wares, J.P. (Ed.) (2026). The ecology and evolution of marine parasites and disease. Ecology and evolution of infectious diseases series. Oxford University Press: New York. ISBN 9780197790809. 376 pp. https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/9780197790847.001.0001, more
In: Ecology and evolution of infectious diseases series. Oxford University Press: New York. , more
|
| Author keywords |
Biological Sciences Ecology and Conservation Animal Pathology and Diseases Aquatic Biology |
| Authors | | Top |
- Wares, J.P.
- Blakeslee, A.M.H.
- Byers, J.E.
|
|
|
| Abstract |
As predicted by the symptoms of global warming, marine ecologists are observing more mass mortality events and signs of disease in their ecosystems. Some events are quickly diagnosable and transient—as with harmful algal blooms—while others remain enigmatic (Hewson et al. 2019). Warming itself may be increasing in effect (Raymond et al. 2022) and driving the overturn of communities (Petraitis and Dudgeon 2020), but the role of pathogens and parasites—whether native, expanding, or introduced—is increasingly becoming recognized as a “hidden” regulator of marine ecosystems, with changes or losses of parasites disrupting and transforming communities (Byers 2020; Buck and Ripple 2017). The past two decades have seen immense growth in the study of novel diseases, such as recent developments surrounding bivalve transmissible tumors (Giersch et al. 2022; Skazina et al. 2021, 2023), which affect coastal communities ecologically and economically. Further, key consumers like sea stars and urchins, known to shape the abundance patterns of whole communities, have also experienced waves of disease. In some cases, the causes are multifactorial (Dawson et al. 2023); and in other cases, they are clearly related to unregulated blooms of microconsumers like ciliates (Hewson et al. 2023). We are quickly learning that even organisms that are not apparently of direct economic importance to humans have significant ecosystem effects when they are gone; they thus become important to human economies in a new way through their effects on fisheries, tourism, or human health. Indeed, the pivotal role that predators play in the population dynamics of marine organisms is a well-known structural force of marine communities; however, the role that parasites play in the consumptive and non-consumptive effects of predators is greatly understudied and undervalued but is important if we are to truly understand community dynamics and community structure (Thieltges et al., Chapter 12). |
|
