Document Type
Article
Department/Program
Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Publication Date
9-2018
Journal
Ecology And Evolution
Volume
8
Issue
18
First Page
9384
Last Page
9397
Abstract
Temperature is hypothesized to alter disease dynamics, particularly when species are living at or near their thermal limits. When disease occurs in marine systems, this can go undetected, particularly if the disease is chronic and progresses slowly. As a result, population-level impacts of diseases can be grossly underestimated. Complex migratory patterns, stochasticity in recruitment, and data and knowledge gaps can hinder collection and analysis of data on marine diseases. New tools enabling quantification of disease impacts in marine environments include coupled biogeochemical hydrodynamic models (to hindcast key environmental data), and multievent, multistate mark-recapture (MMSMR) (to quantify the effects of environmental conditions on disease processes and assess population-level impacts). We used MMSMR to quantify disease processes and population impacts in an estuarine population of striped bass (Morone saxatilis) in Chesapeake Bay from 2005 to 2013. Our results supported the hypothesis that mycobacteriosis is chronic, progressive, and, frequently, lethal. Yearly disease incidence in fish age three and above was 89%, suggesting that this disease impacts nearly every adult striped bass. Mortality of diseased fish was high, particularly in severe cases, where it approached 80% in typical years. Severely diseased fish also had a 10-fold higher catchability than healthy fish, which could bias estimates of disease prevalence. For both healthy and diseased fish, mortality increased with the modeled average summer sea surface temperature (SST) at the mouth of the Rappahannock River; in warmer summers (average SST29 degrees C), a cohort is predicted to experience >90% mortality in 1year. Regression of disease signs in mildly and moderately diseased fish was
DOI
10.1002/ece3.4462
Keywords
Morone-Saxatilis; Speculative Hypothesis; Dissolved-Oxygen; Disease; Models; Habitat; Climate; Impact; Tuberculosis; Variability
Recommended Citation
Groner, Maya L.; Hoenig, John M.; Pradel, Roger; Choquet, Remi; Vogelbein, Wolfgang K.; Gauthier, David T.; and Friedrichs, Marjorie A.M., Dermal mycobacteriosis and warming sea surface temperatures are associated with elevated mortality of striped bass in Chesapeake Bay (2018). Ecology And Evolution, 8(18), 9384-9397.
10.1002/ece3.4462
