Parasites And Oscillating Heat: Are Our Oceans Carrying Stress

What We Can't Sea

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Oscillating heat is wreaking havoc on marine life, and parasites are adding to the problem. This episode explores the role of parasites in the health of our oceans.

Elevated temperatures may increase or decrease disease transmission, and the amplitude of these changes can vary in response to a number of factors. Scientists’ knowledge regarding heat stress and human disease outbreaks is rapidly advancing, but understanding of how warming affects wildlife disease is just as, if not more, important. Although much disease ecology research has focused on incremental warming, climate change effects manifest not only via gradual temperature increases (press warming), but also by episodic climatic events (pulse warming) such as heatwaves. Pulse warming events are already increasing in frequency and magnitude. Because they will become more frequent and intense over the next century, it is urgent that we understand how large, and sequential, warming events are likely to influence rates of disease transmission, if we are to predict and mitigate pulse warming impacts.