'The Sea Star Epidemic: An Arms Race for Marine Biodiversity'

Starting in June 2013, sea stars in Washington state and British Columbia began dying in high numbers. By the end of 2013, the entire west coast was affected by a die-off involving at least 20 different species of stars and involving all the major public aquaria. We have since discovered the involvement of a virus, but the epidemic continues today in northern parts of the range and has left vast areas of California devoid of some star species. I will give an update on what we know of the impacts of the epidemic for different star species, including observations from one emerging front in Alaska. I will also consider the broader issue of the impacts that epidemics in the ocean can have on biodiversity.

Speaker: C. Drew Harvell, Ph.D., Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University