Whether through loss of habitat or cascading community effects, diseases can shape the very nature of the marine environment. Despite their significant impacts, studies of marine diseases have tended to lag behind their terrestrial equivalents, particularly with regards to their ecological effects. However, in recent decades global research focused on marine disease ecology has expanded at an accelerating rate. This is due in part to increases in disease emergence across many taxa, but can also be attributed to a broader realization that the parasites responsible for disease are themselves important members of marine communities. Understanding their ecological relationships with the environment and their hosts is critical to understanding, conserving, and managing natural and exploited populations, communities, and ecosystems. Courses on marine disease ecology are now starting to emerge and this first textbook in the field will be ideally placed to serve them.
Marine Disease Ecology is suitable for graduate students and researchers in the fields of marine disease ecology, aquaculture, fisheries, veterinary science, evolution and conservation. It will also be of relevance and use to a broader interdisciplinary audience of government agencies, NGOs, and marine resource managers.
SECTION 1: MARINE INFECTIOUS DISEASES AND THEIR ECOLOGICAL ROLES
1: Bateman, Feist, Bignell, Bass and Stentiford: Marine pathogen diversity and disease outcomes
2: Mclaughlin, Morton and Lafferty: Parasites in marine food webs
3: Morton, Silliman and Lafferty: Disease can shape marine ecosystems
SECTION 2: DRIVERS OF MARINE DISEASE
4: Little, Rojas and Rohwer: Bacteriophage can drive virulence in marine pathogens
5: Burge and Hershberger: Climate change can drive marine diseases
6: Bojko, Lipp, Ford and Behringer: Pollution can drive marine diseases
7: Lohan, Ruiz and Torchin: Invasions can drive marine disease dynamics
SECTION 3: DISEASE PROBLEMS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT
8: Harvell and Lamb: Disease outbreaks can threaten marine biodiversity
9: Raymundo, Burge and Lamb: Disease ecology in marine conservation and management
10: Behringer, Wood, Krkosek and Bushek: Disease in fisheries and aquaculture
SECTION 4: WORKING WITH INFECTIOUS DISEASES
11: Frasca, Gast, Bogomolni and Szczepanek: Diagnosing marine diseases
12: Ben-Horin, Bidegain, de Leo, Groner, Hofmann, McCallum and Powell: Modelling marine diseases
13: Thurber: Future directions for marine disease research