Georgia Aquarium, Atlanta, GA 30313, USA.
Vet Pathol. 2011 May;48(3):676-90. doi: 10.1177/0300985810388525. Epub 2010 Dec 15.
The long-term consequences of climate change and potential environmental degradation are likely to include aspects of disease emergence in marine plants and animals. In turn, these emerging diseases may have epizootic potential, zoonotic implications, and a complex pathogenesis involving other cofactors such as anthropogenic contaminant burden, genetics, and immunologic dysfunction. The concept of marine sentinel organisms provides one approach to evaluating aquatic ecosystem health. Such sentinels are barometers for current or potential negative impacts on individual- and population-level animal health. In turn, using marine sentinels permits better characterization and management of impacts that ultimately affect animal and human health associated with the oceans. Marine mammals are prime sentinel species because many species have long life spans, are long-term coastal residents, feed at a high trophic level, and have unique fat stores that can serve as depots for anthropogenic toxins. Marine mammals may be exposed to environmental stressors such as chemical pollutants, harmful algal biotoxins, and emerging or resurging pathogens. Since many marine mammal species share the coastal environment with humans and consume the same food, they also may serve as effective sentinels for public health problems. Finally, marine mammals are charismatic megafauna that typically stimulate an exaggerated human behavioral response and are thus more likely to be observed.
气候变化和潜在环境恶化的长期后果可能包括海洋动植物疾病出现的各个方面。反过来，这些新出现的疾病可能具有流行潜力、人畜共患的影响，以及涉及其他因素如人为污染物负担、遗传和免疫功能障碍的复杂发病机制。海洋哨兵生物的概念为评估水生生态系统健康提供了一种方法。这些哨兵是衡量对个体和种群水平动物健康的当前或潜在负面影响的晴雨表。反过来，使用海洋哨兵可以更好地描述和管理最终影响与海洋相关的动物和人类健康的影响。海洋哺乳动物是主要的哨兵物种，因为许多物种寿命长、长期居住在沿海地区、处于较高的营养级，并且具有独特的脂肪储存，可以作为人为毒素的储存库。海洋哺乳动物可能会暴露于环境压力源，如化学污染物、有害藻类生物毒素和新出现或重新出现的病原体。由于许多海洋哺乳动物物种与人类共享沿海环境并食用相同的食物，它们也可能成为公共卫生问题的有效哨兵。最后，海洋哺乳动物是魅力非凡的巨型动物，通常会引起人类过度的行为反应，因此更容易被观察到。
