We use these data to: 1) present regional patterns of difference in the degree to which SSWD has impacted P. ochraceus populations, 2) examine whether sea star density might have played a role in disease severity, 3) explore the potential relationship between P. ochraceus decline and water temperature, which has been implicated as a contributing factor in prior wasting events, and 4) present spatial patterns in P. ochraceus recruitment and juvenile survival between pre-and post- outbreak periods that can be used to 5) assess the potential for recovery of P. ochraceus populations within SSWD-impacted areas. Methodology, The data presented here demonstrate that recruitment and survivorship for P. ochraceus varies geographically, at both broad and localized scales, and also highlight the challenges of collecting basic life history data in the dynamic intertidal zone, where being cryptic is essential to juvenile survivorship, and unhealthy individuals do not persist for long. Methodology, Because intertidal temperature loggers were not installed at sites in southern California, temperature data from four piers in the region [32] were used as a proxy. Investigation, Our data from Fogarty Creek, OR (one of the sites sampled by Menge et al. Sea stars along the Pacific Coast are not so fortunate, as large amounts of organic matter may be robbing them of an ability to breathe. Authored by by Chris Iovenko Wordcount January 30, 2019 | 750 words, about 3 minutes Share this article. Seawater temperatures in northern California in spring and early summer of 2014 were slightly elevated above the long-term mean, but less so than in some previous years (e.g. The annual relative population size was calculated by dividing the total number of adult P. ochraceus (>30 mm radius) counted within long-term permanent plots for a given year (or mean count in years with >1 survey year-1) by the long-term annual mean number of stars counted at a given site through 2013. Permission to access sites located on Vandenberg Air Force Base was granted by the U.S. Air Force. Among the northern regions, crashes were most severe at sites within San Francisco Bay and also the Salish Sea region of Washington. Because these early symptoms are similar to those resulting from other sources of stress in sea stars, such as desiccation or injury from predators (authors’ pers. (3), And juvenile mortality due to wasting is: Therefore, we cannot determine whether differences in juvenile abundance at either broad or localized scales resulted from differential settlement, differential post-settlement mortality, or both. Jaffe N, et al. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192870.g001. Raimondi, M.H. SSWD is currently affecting more than twenty species of sea stars in nine families. In addition to Hewson, Cornellians on this research include Christopher M. DeRito, researcher, Department of Microbiology; Ian R. Porter, assistant clinical professor, College of Veterinary Medicine; Jordan E. Rede, graduate student, Department of Microbiology; and Jed P. Sparks, professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. – For more than seven years, a mysterious wasting disease has nearly killed off sea star populations around the world. We used this published estimate of growth rate in our calculations, but among-site differences in rate of growth are certainly possible due to variation in factors such as prey availability and seawater temperature. Discover a faster, simpler path to publishing in a high-quality journal. Supervision, Supervision, PLOS ONE promises fair, rigorous peer review, If there is not enough oxygen surrounding the papulae, the starfish can’t breathe.”. Only stars ≥ 50 mm diameter were recorded in CBS surveys, so they capture adult densities well, but exclude juveniles. Since 2013, millions of sea stars have died along the west coast of North America.These sea stars started showings bizarre symptoms. In 2013, a range-wide sea star wasting disease (SSWD) outbreak leading to mass mortality across the range of Pisaster ochraceus created a rare opportunity to explore the genetic landscape in which selection acts, and to identify alleles that responded directly … Data curation, Estimating survivorship of juvenile P. ochraceus in the field is challenging, largely because small sea stars (≤20 mm radius) are cryptic and difficult to count accurately; however, as stars grow larger, they become much more obvious to observers. Project administration, P. ochraceus was the first species to be termed a ‘keystone predator’ [7] because of its strong effects on diversity of primary space occupiers in wave-exposed areas [7,19]. A mysterious wasting disease has been devastating sea star populations around the world for several years. Another factor that researchers consider when trying to predict the spread of a disease is the density of the affected populations in different areas. Although this mysterious disease had been observed in the years 1970, 1980, and 1990 scientists have never seen it affect so many sea stars on such a large scale. Site numbers refer to the maps in S1A–S1H Fig. For more than seven years, a mysterious wasting disease has nearly killed off sea star populations around the world. “It’s a cascade of problems that starts with changes in the environment,” Hewson said, explaining that most of the organic matter comes from microscopic algae exudation (a discharge), zooplankton excretion and egestion, and from decaying animal carcasses. P. ochraceus individuals do move between the intertidal and subtidal zones, and our surveys did not extend into the subtidal zone; thus it is possible that our data overestimated population declines at our sites if P. ochraceus individuals persisted in large numbers in subtidal refugia. “As humans, we breathe, we ventilate, we bring air into our lungs and we exhale,” said Ian Hewson, professor of microbiology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Within the northern California region, for example, Damnation Creek, False Klamath Cove, and Bodega were among the most densely populated sites, but P. ochraceus decline at the less densely populated Alcatraz site was much more severe (Fig 2). Unfortunately, juvenile abundances were too low at southern sites to test for a difference in juvenile mortality between northern and southern regions post-SSWD onset and to our knowledge no data are available to allow comparisons of virulence across regions. Multi-year monitoring programs allow researchers to characterize the range of natural variation in populations and thus to distinguish anomalies from natural fluctuations [45–46]. By contrast, Menge et al. The relationship between temperature and sea star decline was not formally tested because the temporal scale of our population surveys was too coarse to capture the temporal scale at which P. ochraceus responds to its environment (e.g., [33]). However, if these larger geographic recruitment trends continue, the outlook for recovery of P. ochraceus populations in the southern regions is poor, as numbers of juveniles recorded at the southern sites are orders of magnitude smaller than those recorded at many northern sites. From Extension Specialist Jennifer O'Leary: Sea stars are an iconic symbol of California’s rocky intertidal habitats, inhabiting tide pools and low intertidal benches. Early signs of SSWD include a twisted or deflated appearance, followed by the development of lesions (authors’ pers. The problem surfaced in 2013, when sea star wasting disease (or SSWD) was spotted along the B.C. P. ochraceus were counted, measured, and (beginning in 2013) assigned to disease categories annually or semiannually at 90 long-term monitoring (LTM) sites in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California. If SSWD was more virulent in the southern regions, this differential mortality across the Pt. For more than seven years, a mysterious wasting disease has nearly killed off sea star populations around the world. Regional maps of study sites: Panel A in S1 Fig) Alaska sites, Panel B in S1 Fig) British Columbia sites, Panel C in S1 Fig) Washington sites, Panel D in S1 Fig) Oregon sites, Panel E in S1 Fig) Northern California sites, Panel F in S1 Fig) Central California sites, Panel G in S1 Fig) Southern California mainland sites, Panel H in S1 Fig) Southern California Channel Island Sites. Measurements were estimated to the nearest 10 mm for all stars with a radius larger than 7 mm. [47] found little evidence of genetic differentiation among P. ochraceus populations from Alaska to southern California, indicating there is no barrier to genetic connectivity. Data curation, For more information about PLOS Subject Areas, click Sea Stars and Biodiversity. We have made similar direct observations of declines in numbers of subtidal asteroids at a subset of sites where both intertidal and subtidal surveys were conducted (P.T. Juvenile (≤ 30 mm radius) P. ochraceus abundance exhibited a strong spatial signal, with high numbers of juveniles recorded at sites ranging from Washington to central California, and few to no juveniles at sites on the southern California mainland and the California Channel Islands (Fig 4). Because the values were extremely non-normal, we bootstrapped values 2500 times to generate a distribution of possible means, which allowed estimation of the overall median and confidence intervals. Yet among these many possibilities, two factors stand out with strong potential for predicting disease affecting sea stars: temperature and population density. Writing – review & editing, Affiliation In changing oceans, sea stars may be 'drowning' Date: January 6, 2021 Source: Cornell University Summary: New research suggests that starfish, victims of sea star wasting disease … Conceptualization, Both have been linked to the emergence and severity of prior disease events in marine systems (reviewed in [2,4]) and are widely considered to be important in the development of predictive models [1,2,4,27–29]. Infected animals develop lesions that eat away tissue, with limbs dropping off as the animals die. This means that compared to the pre-SSWD period, approximately 90% more juvenile stars on average died before reaching the next year’s size class when SSWD was present in the population. Yet despite patchy recruitment patterns and high mortality rates for juveniles, some fraction of the P. ochraceus that recruited after the SSWD outbreak did survive and transition into larger size classes (S2 Fig). Funding acquisition, Visualization, The median estimated juvenile mortality rate due to SSWD (on top of the ordinary, pre-SSWD mortality rate) across all informative sites was 88.5% (2-tailed 95% CI = 65.4%-93.5%). An access agreement was granted annually to the PISCO group at UCSC from the Pebble Beach Company to do surveys at Stillwater Cove. Monitoring groups include: Sitka Sound Science Center (SSSC), University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC), University of British Columbia (UBC), Olympic National Park (ONP), Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (PBNERR), Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary (OCNMS), Redwoods National and State Park (RNSP), Point Reyes National Seashore (PORE), Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GOGA), University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), California State University Fullerton (CSUF), California State Polytechnic University Pomona (CPP), Cabrillo National Monument (CABR), Channel Islands National Park (CHIS). Loggers at most sites were housed in stainless steel wire mesh cages and bolted to the substrate. Investigation, Sea stars critical to kelp forest resilience. (2018) Large-scale impacts of sea star wasting disease (SSWD) on intertidal sea stars and implications for recovery. Supervision, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192870.s003. We have clues from small-scale studies [7,50], but the vast amount of coastline impacted by the current wasting event encompasses much more variation in the factors contributing to community structure than could ever be tested experimentally, and it is likely that our understanding of the role this keystone predator plays in shaping community structure will be revised and improved in the coming years. However, a recent (2013) sea star wasting disease decimated populations … Because we defined recruits as P. ochraceus ≤ 30 mm in radius, stars in even our smallest size classes are likely several months old. The white lesions on the arms of this sea star are the first sign of sea star wasting syndrome. Access to Government Point was provided by Bixby Management Inc. Access to Alegria was approved annually by the Hollister Ranch Corporation. Populations at all California sites were in decline by 2014, with declines beginning at some sites in 2013. 2019 Nov 21;14(11):e0225248. obs); [12–14,20]. Share this: Share on Flipboard A variety of components factor into population recovery, including recruitment of new individuals, juvenile survivorship to the adult stage, and disease persistence. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. Although “wasting disease” had been documented in P. ochraceus before 2013, the etiology of those outbreaks is not known [23,24,36] and may well have varied among locations and outbreak events [23]. Heavy emphasis has been placed on the potential for scientists to use temperature data to develop tools to forecast marine disease outbreaks and predict impact to natural populations [27], as high seawater temperatures are widely associated with high prevalence and severity of marine diseases [2,8,27]. ... At a time when marine diseases and mass mortalities are on the rise, this study documents the impact of little-known wildlife diseases and potential trajectory of recovery in a keystone marine species. here. Established avenues for communication among network partners allowed the rapid addition of specific disease surveillance activities to their ongoing coordinated monitoring efforts across a wide geographical range. Disease outbreaks can have substantial impacts on wild populations, but the often patchy or anecdotal evidence of these impacts impedes our ability to understand outbreak dynamics. P. ochraceus is one of the most recognized species from the intertidal and shallow subtidal zones along this coast, with a broad geographic range from Prince William Sound Alaska, USA to Cedros Island, Baja California, Mexico [16]. However, our data do show that the intensity of the outbreak was elevated in warmer-water southern regions relative to cooler northern areas. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, California, United States of America, Roles Differences in plot size, tidal height, and habitat features among LTM sites complicate conversion of permanent plot counts to population density estimates, and thus preclude direct among-site comparisons of abundance from data collected using LTM methods. age = 9 months) grew to approximately 60 mm in size after 1 year. The sea star wasting syndrome was first discovered last June off the coast of Washington state. Channel Islands National Park, Ventura, California, United States of America, Roles At some Washington sites, loggers were either encased in epoxy for protection and then bolted and epoxied to the bedrock, or housed in flow-through PVC tubes that were bolted to the substrate. Visualization, The ‘spatially mixed’ distribution of low and high recruitment sites in northern regions could be viewed as encouraging, because if populations at high recruitment sites do recover, they could potentially serve as sources of larvae for neighboring sites [35]. These piers are located in protected sandy areas, which can have elevated temperatures as compared to rocky shores (Raimondi per. The problem surfaced in 2013, when sea star wasting disease sea was spotted along the British Columbia and Washington coasts. Finally, diseased stars were first noted in central and southern California in fall 2013, long before increased seawater temperatures were recorded, and population declines attributed to SSWD began prior to the onset of elevated seawater temperatures. Writing – review & editing, Affiliation Following the convention established by Feder [34] and Sewell and Watson [35], we consider ‘juvenile’ P. ochraceus to be those ≤ 30 mm in radius. To determine whether sites with higher densities of sea stars were more likely to experience population decline due to SSWD, and whether a potential relationship differed among regions, we ran an ANCOVA analysis assessing the severity of decline (# of stars counted in 2015 in LTM plots / long-term mean # of stars counted in LTM plots pre-SSWD) as a function of P. ochraceus density (from CBS swath data), region, and the interaction between density and region. By contrast, seawater temperature is a relatively easy metric to measure with existing temperature logger technology, and provides an accurate proxy of P. ochraceus body temperature while submerged (at high tide). Visualization, All work described here complies with current laws of the United States of America and Canada. We can calculate all the terms on the left side of Eq 3 (the N terms) for all sites where there were years with recruits in both the pre and post periods, which means we can get estimates of SW and therefore also MW (total number of informative sites = 35). Project administration, At LTM sites in British Columbia, Canada, whole-site counts (no sizes) of P. ochraceus were made within fixed spatial boundaries from 2008 to 2016. Because of this combination of factors, monitoring efforts initiated at the start of the disease outbreak were unlikely to provide accurate characterizations of changes in P. ochraceus populations at any given location. Data curation, Conceptualization, e0192870. Temperature loggers were installed in the mid-low intertidal zone, in areas that would afford some protection from waves and theft. Our LTM data suggest there may be two very different recruitment regimes north and south of the biogeographic break at Point Conception. At LTM sites where P. ochraceus individuals were sized, the “radius” of each P. ochraceus encountered within the defined search area was measured as the distance from the middle of the star to the tip of the longest ray. Sea star wasting disease devastated intertidal sea star populations from Mexico to Alaska between 2013–15, but little detail is known about its impacts to subtidal species. The research, “Evidence That Microorganisms at the Animal-Water Interface Drive Sea Star Wasting Disease,” was published on January 6, 2021, in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology.. Among regions, the generally densely populated north experienced only modest declines relative to the less densely populated south. Percent decline of stars in adult size classes (>30 mm) exceeded 75% at all but one southern site, and was ≥ 99% at over half of the 39 sites in the southern regions. Thus, while consistent historic recruitment tended to be a good predictor of high post-SSWD recruitment, it was not a prerequisite. Horizontal lines where ratio = 1 were included to illustrate deviations from long-term mean. By contrast, declines generally occurred later and were less extreme in northern regions (San Francisco, CA north to Alaska), although timing of decline varied substantially among northern regions, and even among sites within these regions. In Oregon, surveys were completed under Oregon DFW permit #’s 18084, 18610, 19306, 20174, and 21411, and access to Fogarty Creek was provided through collaborators at Oregon State University, who have an agreement with the owners. Supervision, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225248. Resources, To date, we have received reports of at least 10 species of sea stars showing signs of infection. Without “pre-outbreak” data to provide historical context, it is impossible to evaluate the impact of the disease or the trajectory of recovery for a P. ochraceus population. Formal analysis, However, unlike these previous regional events, in 2014–2015 we documented synchronous declines in P. ochraceus populations across multiple biogeographic regions—a marine disease outbreak of unprecedented geographic scale and magnitude. Most of these surveys were completed by partners in the Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network (MARINe), who have been working with a standardized set of monitoring protocols to study community dynamics in rocky intertidal systems for up to 25 years. Special thanks to The Nature Conservancy, who owns and manages the UC NRS on Santa Cruz Island. The syndrome is a general description of symptoms found in affected sea stars. Survey shows impact of sea star wasting disease in Salish Sea. The latest confirmed victim of rising temperature is starfish. Jaffe N, Eberl R, Bucholz J, Cohen CS. Prior to 2013, regional disease outbreaks had been implicated in punctuated and spatially isolated declines in P. ochraceus abundance along the North American Pacific coast from Baja California, Mexico [24] to British Columbia, Canada [23]. 2019 Nov 21;14(11):e0225248. Writing – review & editing, Roles The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Geological Survey. Last year, we wrote a post about the Sea Star Wasting Syndrome, a disease that was causing mass mortality of sea stars along the Pacific Coast from Baja California to the Gulf of Alaska. [14]) also show high numbers of juveniles during this period. This means that for year = i: Data from sites within U.S. National Parks was primarily collected by National Park Service scientists, who also assisted with manuscript preparation. Hopkins Marine Station provided access to the site within their reserve. A deflated appearance can precede other morphological signs of the disease. The intensity of the impact of SSWD was not uniform across the affected area, with proportionally greater population declines in the southern regions relative to the north. On the Washington outer coast, symptomatic stars were first noted in June 2013, following a period of anomalously high seawater temperatures, and symptomatic stars were found frequently during periods of elevated temperatures in 2014–2015 [37]. Typically, lesions appear in the ectoderm followed by decay of tissue surrounding the lesions, which can lead to eventual fragmentation of the body and death. Although sea stars have been making a comeback since then, scientists are still working to find out exactly what caused the sea star wasting disease (SSWD), with some suggesting that … In Washington, work at Post Point was conducted under Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) permit # 120720–1 and access to sites on Makah land and the Quinault Nation was granted to Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary (NMS) for all surveys. Evidence suggests that disease outbreaks in marine systems are becoming increasingly common, potentially as a consequence of the shift in environmental conditions associated with global climate change [2,4]. [14] documented ‘unprecedented’ numbers of juvenile recruits at seven long-term monitoring sites in 2014–2015. Historical data provided by long-term population surveillance are essential at this stage, as they allow the construction of ‘benchmark’ indices based on “normal” pre-disease population parameters, such as size frequency distributions and abundance. Yes Unshaded cells represent years when surveys were not done. Project administration, Investigation, The copiotrophs respire, he said, so while absorbing the organic matter, they deplete oxygen in the sea star’s watery space. This catastrophic event that has decimated many species of starfish … doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225248. Harley et al. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192870.g003. In response to the recent sea star wasting disease event and the growing concern over the negative consequences of eco-depression regarding environmental crises, this study investigated the effects of two emotional appeals (sadness and hope) and their interaction with gain versus loss framing on information seeking, policy support, and pro-environmental behavioral intentions. Data curation, Determining the long-term effects of SSWD on P. ochraceus populations and on rocky intertidal communities poses a particular challenge for ecologists because the etiology of the disease is not yet fully resolved (although see [12] for identification of an associated densovirus). Project administration, Citation: Miner CM, Burnaford JL, Ambrose RF, Antrim L, Bohlmann H, Blanchette CA, et al. Instead, we used pre-onset of SSWD data from the Coastal Biodiversity Survey (CBS) Program [31] to compare P. ochraceus population densities among 68 sites across the US west coast where we also have LTM data that could be used to assess impact due to SSWD (described above). Investigation, While there is no strong evidence from our data to support elevated seawater temperatures as a factor contributing to the initial emergence of SSWD, sustained, anomalously high seawater temperatures in 2014 and 2015 might have exacerbated the disease’s impact, as sea star declines continued in all regions. The study titled “Evidence That Microorganisms at the Animal-Water Interface Drive Sea Star Wasting Disease,” was published in the Frontiers in Microbiology journal on January 6 th, 2021. Work at other California sites (including Marine Protected Areas) was authorized by California DFW permits SC-4055, SC-3124, SC-8187, SC-10589, and SC-003922. It is important to note that the patterns described here are based on population declines documented by our annual or semiannual surveys, not on when disease symptoms were first observed. There was no evidence that higher sea star densities were associated with more dramatic declines either within or among regions. Overall, because of this contrast between the large-scale geographic break (north/south) and smaller scale variability, the data suggest that a “general” pattern of recruitment for P. ochraceus may be difficult to describe, and consequently that our ability to predict the trajectory of recovery for any given site or region is limited. Project administration, survivorship). 2010, Fig 3). Writing – review & editing, Affiliation Click through the PLOS taxonomy to find articles in your field. Writing – review & editing, Affiliation Investigation, Sea star wasting syndrome is a general description of a set of symptoms that are found in sea stars. Large-scale impacts of sea star wasting disease (SSWD) on intertidal sea stars and implications for recovery. Sea star wasting disease broke out in 2013, causing massive death of several species of sea stars. We thank Lisa Gilbane and Mary Elaine Helix, our BOEM program managers, for their vision and encouragement of this long-term monitoring effort. Our results suggest that juvenile survivorship was substantially reduced by the presence of disease when pre- and post-onset of SSWD periods were compared. No, Is the Subject Area "Marine monitoring" applicable to this article? Sunflower sea stars (commonly called starfish) are dying off by the millions on the Pacific Coast from Sea Star Wasting Disease. Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, United States of America, Affiliation “It’s organic matter concentrations in the water,” he said. Only the mid to low zone contains habitat appropriate for P. ochraceus, thus when area sampled was calculated for each site, we subtracted the high zone portion of the swaths beyond which no P. ochraceus occurred. Investigation, Conceptualization, P. ochraceus is well-known as the original keystone species [7], but its’ ability to play a keystone role in rocky intertidal systems hinges on the community role of the foundation species Mytilus californianus, which in turn depends on environmental factors such as the degree of wave action and sand influence at a site [19]. Recorded in the initiation or intensification of the disease that progresses from white lesions to loss of arms and death..., crashes were most severe at sites within San Francisco Bay and also the Salish sea region of Washington matter. Force Base was granted annually to the production of unusual amounts of organic material, survive. 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