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.
