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Two decades of change in sea star abundance at a subtidal site in Puget Sound, Washington

Long-term datasets can reveal otherwise undetectable ecological trends, illuminating the historical context of contemporary ecosystem states. We used two decades (1997–2019) of scientific trawling data from a subtidal, benthic site in Puget Sound, Washington, USA to test for gradual trends and sudde...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Casendino, Helen R., McElroy, Katherine N., Sorel, Mark H., Quinn, Thomas P., Wood, Chelsea L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10256211/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37294819
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286384
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author Casendino, Helen R.
McElroy, Katherine N.
Sorel, Mark H.
Quinn, Thomas P.
Wood, Chelsea L.
author_facet Casendino, Helen R.
McElroy, Katherine N.
Sorel, Mark H.
Quinn, Thomas P.
Wood, Chelsea L.
author_sort Casendino, Helen R.
collection PubMed
description Long-term datasets can reveal otherwise undetectable ecological trends, illuminating the historical context of contemporary ecosystem states. We used two decades (1997–2019) of scientific trawling data from a subtidal, benthic site in Puget Sound, Washington, USA to test for gradual trends and sudden shifts in total sea star abundance across 11 species. We specifically assessed whether this community responded to the sea star wasting disease (SSWD) epizootic, which began in 2013. We sampled at depths of 10, 25, 50 and 70 m near Port Madison, WA, and obtained long-term water temperature data. To account for species-level differences in SSWD susceptibility, we divided our sea star abundance data into two categories, depending on the extent to which the species is susceptible to SSWD, then conducted parallel analyses for high-susceptibility and moderate-susceptibility species. The abundance of high-susceptibility sea stars declined in 2014 across depths. In contrast, the abundance of moderate-susceptibility species trended downward throughout the years at the deepest depths– 50 and 70 m–and suddenly declined in 2006 across depths. Water temperature was positively correlated with the abundance of moderate-susceptibility species, and uncorrelated with high-susceptibility sea star abundance. The reported emergence of SSWD in Washington State in the summer of 2014 provides a plausible explanation for the subsequent decline in abundance of high-susceptibility species. However, no long-term stressors or mortality events affecting sea stars were reported in Washington State prior to these years, leaving the declines we observed in moderate-susceptibility species preceding the 2013–2015 SSWD epizootic unexplained. These results suggest that the subtidal sea star community in Port Madison is dynamic, and emphasizes the value of long-term datasets for evaluating patterns of change.
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spelling pubmed-102562112023-06-10 Two decades of change in sea star abundance at a subtidal site in Puget Sound, Washington Casendino, Helen R. McElroy, Katherine N. Sorel, Mark H. Quinn, Thomas P. Wood, Chelsea L. PLoS One Research Article Long-term datasets can reveal otherwise undetectable ecological trends, illuminating the historical context of contemporary ecosystem states. We used two decades (1997–2019) of scientific trawling data from a subtidal, benthic site in Puget Sound, Washington, USA to test for gradual trends and sudden shifts in total sea star abundance across 11 species. We specifically assessed whether this community responded to the sea star wasting disease (SSWD) epizootic, which began in 2013. We sampled at depths of 10, 25, 50 and 70 m near Port Madison, WA, and obtained long-term water temperature data. To account for species-level differences in SSWD susceptibility, we divided our sea star abundance data into two categories, depending on the extent to which the species is susceptible to SSWD, then conducted parallel analyses for high-susceptibility and moderate-susceptibility species. The abundance of high-susceptibility sea stars declined in 2014 across depths. In contrast, the abundance of moderate-susceptibility species trended downward throughout the years at the deepest depths– 50 and 70 m–and suddenly declined in 2006 across depths. Water temperature was positively correlated with the abundance of moderate-susceptibility species, and uncorrelated with high-susceptibility sea star abundance. The reported emergence of SSWD in Washington State in the summer of 2014 provides a plausible explanation for the subsequent decline in abundance of high-susceptibility species. However, no long-term stressors or mortality events affecting sea stars were reported in Washington State prior to these years, leaving the declines we observed in moderate-susceptibility species preceding the 2013–2015 SSWD epizootic unexplained. These results suggest that the subtidal sea star community in Port Madison is dynamic, and emphasizes the value of long-term datasets for evaluating patterns of change. Public Library of Science 2023-06-09 /pmc/articles/PMC10256211/ /pubmed/37294819 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286384 Text en © 2023 Casendino et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Casendino, Helen R.
McElroy, Katherine N.
Sorel, Mark H.
Quinn, Thomas P.
Wood, Chelsea L.
Two decades of change in sea star abundance at a subtidal site in Puget Sound, Washington
title Two decades of change in sea star abundance at a subtidal site in Puget Sound, Washington
title_full Two decades of change in sea star abundance at a subtidal site in Puget Sound, Washington
title_fullStr Two decades of change in sea star abundance at a subtidal site in Puget Sound, Washington
title_full_unstemmed Two decades of change in sea star abundance at a subtidal site in Puget Sound, Washington
title_short Two decades of change in sea star abundance at a subtidal site in Puget Sound, Washington
title_sort two decades of change in sea star abundance at a subtidal site in puget sound, washington
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10256211/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37294819
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286384
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