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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (May 18, 2016)
2 B SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016 CORVALLIS — An unprecedented number of juvenile sea stars have been observed off the Oregon coast over the past several months, just two years after one of the most severe marine ecosystem epidemics in recorded history nearly wiped the population out. The appearance of the juve- niles does not mean the threat of “sea star wasting disease” is over, researchers caution. A second round of the disease could be disastrous to the pur- ple ochre (Pisaster ochraceus) and other sea stars, some of which are considered “key- stone” species in marine habi- tats because of their influence on the ecosystem. A team of Oregon State University scientists who have been monitoring the sea stars for years reported on their sta- tus this week in the journal PLOS ONE. “When we looked at the set- tlement of the larval sea stars on rocks in 2014 during the epidemic, it was the same or maybe even a bit lower than previous years,” said Bruce Menge, the Wayne and Gladys Valley Professor of Marine Biology at Oregon State University and lead author on the study. “But a few months later, the number of juveniles was off the charts — higher than we’d ever seen — as much as 300 times normal. “It wasn’t a case of high set- tlement, or more sea stars being born. They just had an extraordinary survival rate into the juvenile stage. Whether they can make it into adult- hood and replenish the popula- tion without succumbing to sea star wasting disease is the big question.” Menge and his colleagues believe the reason for the high survival rate is the availability of more food. The young sea stars feed on larval and juve- nile mussels and barnacles, competing with adult sea stars for the same food source. The scarcity of adults provided a temporary smorgasbord for the juveniles. Sea star wasting disease first appeared in Oregon in the summer of 2014. In rocky intertidal habitats, disease rap- idly depleted populations of the dominant sea star, Pisaster ochraceus. The sea stars first developed twisted arms, then showed deflation and lesions, and eventually lost arms and the ability to grip onto the sub- strate before finally disinte- grating completely. Over a period of about 15 months, the disease reduced the overall sea star population by 63 to 84 percent at different site along the Oregon coast, and reduced the Pisaster ochraceus population by 80 to 99 percent. The epidemic ranged from Alaska to Baja California. Scientists from Cornell University attributed the epi- demic to a Sea Star-associated Densovirus and researchers in Washington say warmer water may have provided the trigger for the disease in that state. But Menge’s research group found no association between water temperature and the dis- ease outbreak in Oregon. “The longer-term ecological consequences of this (disease) event could include wholesale elimination of many low zone species and a complete change in the zonation patterns of rocky intertidal communities along the West Coast of North America,” the authors wrote in their study. 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