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Abstract
Asteroids (Echinodermata) experience mass mortality events that have the potential to cause dramatic shifts in ecosystem structure. Asteroid wasting describes a suite of body wall abnormalities that can ultimately result in animal mortality. Wasting in Northeast Pacific asteroids has gained considerable recent scientific attention due to its geographic extent, number of species affected, and effects on overall population density in some affected regions. However, asteroid wasting has been observed for over a century in other regions and species. Asteroids are subject to physical injury and adverse environmental conditions, which may result in very similar external manifestations to wasting, making identification of causative processes sometimes problematic. Here we review asteroid health abnormalities reported in years prior to the 2013-present Northeast Pacific wasting mass mortality, and report two additional geographically disparate wasting events that occurred concomitantly with the recent wasting outbreak.
Highlights
Marine disease events can have profound influences on ecosystem structure, causing shifts in species dominance, biodiversity, and function
We show that grossly apparent disease signs reported in the current Northeast Pacific sea star wasting outbreak share similarity with those caused by nonpathogenic factors, and are similar to reported asteroid mass mortalities since at least 1898
Christensen (1970) reported that one individual had an “unknown skin disease” which caused mortality several months after it first showed signs of wasting – the animal “bursted with parts of at least 2 gonads piercing through the body wall”
Summary
Marine disease events can have profound influences on ecosystem structure, causing shifts in species dominance, biodiversity, and function. Asteroid wasting is described as a progression of clinical signs whereby lesions appear on their surface tissues, followed by tissue decay around lesions, limb autotomy and death.
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