Sea star wasting disease demography and etiology in the brooding sea star Leptasterias spp.

ABSTRACT: Sea star wasting disease (SSWD) describes a suite of disease signs believed to have led to catastrophic die-offs in many asteroid species, beginning in 2013. While most studies have focused on large, easily visible sea stars with widely-dispersing larvae, less information is available on the effect of this disease outbreak on smaller sea star species, such as the six-armed sea star Leptasterias spp. Unlike many larger sea stars, Leptasterias brood non-feeding young instead of broadcast-spawning planktonic larvae. Limited dispersal and thus limited gene flow may make these sea stars more vulnerable to local selective pressures, such as disease outbreaks. Here, we examined Leptasterias populations at sites along the California coast and documented abundance changes coincident with recent Pac

SUBMITTER: Jaffe N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6872156 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature