Trends in Ecology & Evolution
ReviewPulse Heat Stress and Parasitism in a Warming World
Section snippets
Rising Tide, Ebbing Tide, or Tsunami? Disease in a Warming World
In 2015 and 2016, an epidemic of Zika virus spread across 31 countries. That outbreak – and upticks in the prevalence of other deadly infectious diseases – was attributed to increased temperatures during the concurrent El Niño event, which decreased incubation time of the Zika virus and increased vector abundance by facilitating mosquito populations [1]. Elevated temperatures may increase or decrease disease transmission (see Glossary), and the amplitude of these changes can vary in response to
Parasitism and Pulse Heat Stress
Pulse warming can increase or decrease parasitism, depending on its effects on host and parasite populations and their interactions, and on dynamic environmental drivers. In 2002, Mouritsen and Poulin [28] thoroughly reviewed the relationship between pulse warming and parasitism as it was understood at the time. Twenty years later, there is now sufficient evidence to synthesize across case studies, draw general conclusions, and to build a framework to organize the mechanisms linking parasite
Impacts of Pulse Warming on Parasites
We begin by considering the parasite’s perspective – that is, by isolating the direct effects of pulse warming on parasite individuals and populations both inside and outside of the host (Figure 2A, ii and iv, Key Figure). The indirect effects are considered below; see Impacts of Pulse Warming on Hosts). Pulse warming can directly alter parasite vital rates, energy expenditures, and virulence. Because these parameters are, in turn, key determinants of parasite abundance and transmission, pulse
Impacts of Pulse Warming on Hosts
In contrast to parasites, hosts can be either endothermic or ectothermic. We expect that responses to pulse warming will vary between endothermic and ectothermic hosts, since ectotherms conform to the ambient temperature (or approximate the ambient temperature, in the case of behavioral thermoregulation), whereas endotherms maintain a relatively consistent internal temperature. Pulse warming can influence host resistance and survival as well as range and habitat use, and thus the direct impacts
Impacts of Pulse Warming on Ecological Interactions and Evolution
Pulse warming can influence ecological interactions by directly influencing parasitism and by altering community structure. Pulse warming can influence individuals and populations of hosts and parasites, but it can also influence the composition of entire communities, with implications for parasite transmission. Parasitism is a vitally important ecological interaction that influences all organisms and is intimately intertwined with ecosystem structure. For example, in tropical reef
Concluding Remarks and Future Perspectives
In light of all the avenues we explore above: should ecologists expect a rising tide, an ebbing tide, or a tsunami of wildlife disease in response to pulse warming events? Considering the current evidence, we conclude that simple predictions are not possible, and that researchers must weigh the effects of warming on their focal hosts, parasites, and corresponding communities to develop predictions for their system. The combination of pulse warming and disease can increase uncertainty in
Acknowledgments
D.C.C. was supported by the NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, administered by UCAR’s Cooperative Programs for the Advancement of Earth System Science (CPAESS) under award # NA18NWS4620043B. C.L.W. was supported by a grant from the US National Science Foundation (OCE-1829509), a Sloan Research Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a UW Innovation Award from the UW President’s Innovation Imperative, and a UW Royalty Research Fund Award.
Glossary
- Amplification effect
- hypothesis that increasing community species richness causes an increase in the rate of parasite transmission.
- Behavioral fever
- thermal choice for warmer environments to upregulate immune response.
- Behavioral thermoregulation
- regulation of body temperature by altering behavior.
- Competent host
- a host in which a parasite can transmit infection to another susceptible host or vector.
- Complex life cycle
- parasitic life cycle that involves the sequential use of two or more host species.
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Cited by (30)
Assigning cause for emerging diseases of aquatic organisms
2023, Trends in MicrobiologySymbiosis and host responses to heating
2022, Trends in Ecology and EvolutionCitation Excerpt :Under rapidly increasing and severe heating, however, parasite virulence (in terms of reduction in host thermal tolerance) may increase [25], possibly without parallel changes in host or parasite traits that lead to increased transmission. Traits driving transmission may not increase under severe heating because of the brief nature of extreme temperature events or because extreme temperatures harm both host and parasite [69,70]. These scenarios are speculative.
Copepod and monogenean infection of fish under sea surface temperature anomalies
2021, Journal of Sea ResearchCitation Excerpt :Additionally, it has been argued that pulse heat events, which are expected to be more frequent and intense in the future, may increase or reduce the transmission of parasites. As no universal patterns have been detected, researchers must measure the effects of warming on focal hosts, parasites, and corresponding communities to develop predictions for a particular system (Claar and Wood, 2020). The Gulf of California (GC) is a biodiversity hotspot and the most important fishing region in Mexico (Lluch-Cota et al., 2007).
Modern supratidal microbialites fed by groundwater: functional drivers, value and trajectories
2020, Earth-Science ReviewsCitation Excerpt :A pilot study to investigate these dynamics is currently underway in the Nelson Mandela Bay microbialites. This is an important emergent threat given the predicted increase in diseases and pathogens in coastal environments due to warming conditions (Claar and Wood, 2020). Preliminary results in the South African microbialites have found that dark lesions in the epaulette goby C. sordidus (Rishworth et al., 2017e) were the result of encysted metacercaria of a digenetic trematode (fluke) that became encapsulated by host tissue pigmented with melanin.
How to use natural history collections to resurrect information on historical parasite abundances
2023, Journal of Helminthology
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Twitter: @ClaarDanielle (D.C. Claar).