Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
One Health Institute, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
Sci Adv. 2019 Jan 30;5(1):eaau7042. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aau7042. eCollection 2019 Jan.
Multihost infectious disease outbreaks have endangered wildlife, causing extinction of frogs and endemic birds, and widespread declines of bats, corals, and abalone. Since 2013, a sea star wasting disease has affected >20 sea star species from Mexico to Alaska. The common, predatory sunflower star (), shown to be highly susceptible to sea star wasting disease, has been extirpated across most of its range. Diver surveys conducted in shallow nearshore waters ( = 10,956; 2006-2017) from California to Alaska and deep offshore (55 to 1280 m) trawl surveys from California to Washington ( = 8968; 2004-2016) reveal 80 to 100% declines across a ~3000-km range. Furthermore, timing of peak declines in nearshore waters coincided with anomalously warm sea surface temperatures. The rapid, widespread decline of this pivotal subtidal predator threatens its persistence and may have large ecosystem-level consequences.
多宿主传染病暴发危及野生动物，导致青蛙和地方特有鸟类灭绝，蝙蝠、珊瑚和鲍鱼广泛减少。自 2013 年以来，一种海星消耗疾病已经影响了从墨西哥到阿拉斯加的 20 多种海星物种。已被证明对海星消耗疾病高度易感的常见掠食性向日葵海星（），在其大部分分布范围内已被根除。在加利福尼亚到阿拉斯加的近岸浅水区（=10956；2006-2017 年）和加利福尼亚到华盛顿的近海深水区（55 至 1280 米）进行的潜水调查（=8968；2004-2016 年）显示，在大约 3000 公里的范围内下降了 80%至 100%。此外，近岸水域峰值下降的时间与异常温暖的海面温度相吻合。这种关键的潮间带捕食者的迅速、广泛减少威胁到其生存能力，并可能产生重大的生态系统层面的后果。
