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Science 3 September 1999:
Vol. 285. no. 5433, pp. 1505 - 1510
DOI: 10.1126/science.285.5433.1505
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Emerging Marine Diseases--Climate Links and Anthropogenic Factors

C. D. Harvell, 1* K. Kim, 12 J. M. Burkholder, 3 R. R. Colwell, 45 P. R. Epstein, 6 D. J. Grimes, 7 E. E. Hofmann, 8 E. K. Lipp, 9 A. D. M. E. Osterhaus, 10 R. M. Overstreet, 11 J. W. Porter, 12 G. W. Smith, 13 G. R. Vasta 4

Mass mortalities due to disease outbreaks have recently affected major taxa in the oceans. For closely monitored groups like corals and marine mammals, reports of the frequency of epidemics and the number of new diseases have increased recently. A dramatic global increase in the severity of coral bleaching in 1997-98 is coincident with high El Niño temperatures. Such climate-mediated, physiological stresses may compromise host resistance and increase frequency of opportunistic diseases. Where documented, new diseases typically have emerged through host or range shifts of known pathogens. Both climate and human activities may have also accelerated global transport of species, bringing together pathogens and previously unexposed host populations.

1 Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
2 Department of Entomology, 4112 Plant Sciences Building, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
3 Botany Department, Box 7612, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA.
4 Center of Marine Biotechnology, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, 701 East Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD 21202, USA.
5 Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
6 Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
7 Institute of Marine Sciences, The University of Southern Mississippi, P.O. Box 7000, 703 East Beach Drive, Ocean Springs, MS 39566, USA.
8 Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography, Old Dominion University, Crittenton Hall, 768 West 52 Street, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA.
9 Department of Marine Science, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, FL 33701, USA.
10 Erasmus University Rotterdam, Institute of Virology, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, Netherlands.
11 Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, P.O. Box 700, The University of Southern Mississippi, Ocean Springs, MS 39566, USA.
12 Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
13 University of South Carolina, Aiken, SC 29801, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed.

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