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PLoS One
2016 Jan 01;114:e0153670. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0153670.
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Decreased Temperature Facilitates Short-Term Sea Star Wasting Disease Survival in the Keystone Intertidal Sea Star Pisaster ochraceus.
Kohl WT
,
McClure TI
,
Miner BG
.
Abstract
An extensive 2013 mass mortality event along the West Coast of North America due to Sea Star Wasting Disease (SSWD) has affected at least 20 species of sea stars. Among environmental factors potentially contributing to the timing of the current outbreak, increased coastal water temperatures are hypothesized to have contributed to previous and current outbreaks of SSWD. With a laboratory experiment, we tested whether cooler temperatures, similar to average winter temperatures, compared to average summer temperatures could slow the progression of morbidity or prevent SSWD mortality entirely in Pisaster ochraceus. Sea stars housed in cooler water progressed through SSWD states more slowly than sea stars housed at summer temperatures. However, the cooler temperature did not prevent SSWD mortality, and all stars died of the disease. Our data are consistent with experimental studies and field observations during previous and current outbreaks, and support the hypothesis that changes in coastal water temperatures have influenced one of the largest disease related mass mortality events in our oceans.
Fig 1. Individuals of P. ochraceus with signs of SSWD.(A) Typical arm twisting behavior involved contortions of one or more arms toward the oral disk, often observed prior to lesion spread or development. (B) âCorkscrewâ arm twisting, contortions were generally limited to one arm and involved the twisting of the affected arm about a central axis, and often observed immediately prior to shedding of the affected arm. (C) Shedding of one or more arms generally occurred 1â5 days after observing substantial lesioning; several individuals displayed perforated aboral lesions with protruding pyloric cecae or gonads (arrow). (D) Close-up of the wound produced by a recent arm-shedding event, solid masses of lesioned tissue (arrowheads) often appeared to close or occlude openings in the coelomic cavity, though gonads and pyloric cecae (arrow) were often observed to protrude through wounds produced by arm shedding.
Fig 2. Average time to death in each temperature treatment.Error bars represent ± standard error.
Fig 3. Morbidity vs. time in each temperature treatment.Error bars represent ± standard error.
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