Transcript Lecture 3: Pollution and Disease

Pollutants in the Ocean
 Sewage
 Stormwater runoff
 Oil/petroleum products
 Industrial pollutants & metals (includes mercury and
lead)
 Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
 Dumping (of dredge materials and trash)
 Nutrients
Sewage
 Nutrients
www.seaweb.org
 Fecal coliforms, fecal Streptococci, & enterococcus
bacteria
 Pharmaceuticals (estrogens, antidepressants), caffeine
 Suspended particulate matter (increases turbidity)
Stormwater Runoff
 Sediments
 Trash
 Nutrients
Pinellascounty.org
 Oil
 Pesticides
 Herbicides
 Sewage
 Animal waste
Modmobilian.com
Oil/Petroleum Pollution
 Large scale oil spills (Deepwater
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Horizon, Torrey Canyon, Exxon
Valdez)
Small scale spills (spills at oil
terminals, groundings of small vessels,
routine release of oil from offshore
drilling activities)
Vessel operations (illegal tank
cleanouts, discharges)
Municipal and industrial effluents
Natural seeps
whoi.edu
Oil/Petroleum Pollution
Trash
Threats to Wildlife
 Swallowing plastic debris
 Entanglement
Persistent Organic Pollutants
(POPs)
 POP = a substance that possess toxic property and
resists degradation
 Examples: DDT, lindane, PCBs, dioxins
 Stored in the fatty tissue and organs of animals
 Can disrupt endocrine system, case cancer or genetic
defects, weaken immune systems
sustainable-nano.com
www.worldoceanreview.com
Metals
 Do not decompose under normal environmental
conditions and can accumulate in the environment
and in living tissues
Mercury contamination in the sea
Nutrient
Enrichment/Eutrophication
Effects of Eutrophication
 Algal overgrowth of marine ecosystems
 Hypoxia and formation of dead zones
 Stimulation of HABs
Disease in the Marine Environment
 Affects organisms ranging from coralline algae to
manatees
 Infectious diseases are transmitted by pathogens
 Lack Information on disease processes
 Dynamics of host population regulation
 Factors that promote disease emergence and outbreak
 Mechanisms of pathogen transmission
Causes of Disease
 Viruses
 Are the most abundant plankton in the sea
 Hosts include bacterioplankton and phytoplankton
 Have a significant impact on primary production in the
sea
 Fungi
 Slime molds
 Bacteria
 Protozoans
 HABs
Effects of Disease
 Changes in community structure
 Catastrophic population declines
Seaotters.com
Is Disease on the Rise?
 Ex. GTFP (green turtle fibropapillomas)
www.turtles.org
Role of Climate Change and
Humans in Marine Diseases
 Two ways climate change and humans can increase the
occurrence of marine disease
 Increase the rate of contact between novel pathogens
and susceptible hosts

Examples: Transmission of canine distemper virus from sled
dogs in Antarctica to crab-eater seals; harbor seals infected
with influenza virus A (New England) and influenza virus B
(Netherlands)
 Altering the environment in favor of the pathogen
 Examples: Spread of Dermo from warm southern waters to
warming waters along Atlantic coast; corals have increased
susceptibility to an infectious cyanobacteria during warm
water associated bleaching events; polluted habitats increase
organisms’ susceptibility to disease
Disease and Biodiversity
 Sometimes disease outbreaks can increase biodiversity
(Ex. Sea urchins in kelp forests; crown-of-thorns
starfish on coral reefs)
 Is growing concern that the increase in the frequency
and impact of disease outbreaks will negatively affect
biodiversity, but hard to predict extent of effects
 Disease-mediated extinction is likely to be rare
Marine Disease Research Priorities
 Long-term monitoring
 Better understanding of disease dynamics
 Consideration of diseases in marine reserves
Oyster Disease
 Dermo (protozoan parasite, Perkinsus marinus); MSX
haplosporid multinucleated sphere, Haplosporidium
nelsoni)
Coral Disease
Coral Disease
Seagrass Disease
 Wasting disease (marine slime mold-like
protist Labyrinthula zosterae)
 Responsible for catastrophic (90%) loss of
eelgrass along Atlantic coasts of North
America and Europe in 1930s.
Zostera marina
NOAA