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Climate Change: Its Effects on Healthy Aquatic and Marine Wildlife Populations Leslie A. Dierauf, VMD U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center Institute of Medicine December 4. 2007 Washington, DC …Advancing Wildlife and Ecosystem Health Climate Change Affects Plants & Animals Common Overlap of Effects/Impacts Climate Change Plants Animals 2 Expected Changes In Deep Water Oceans with Climate Change 1. Increased Wave Intensity 2. Increased Nutrient Turnover 3. Changes in Nutrients 4. Changes in the Food Web Elements of the Marine Food Web 4 Animal Responses to Climate Change (esp. ▲temperature) Changes in range (shift poleward, up in elevation) Changes in abundance (▲or ▼ in numbers) Changes in phenology (timing of an event) Changes in morphology Changes in physiology Changes in community composition Changes in animal behavior Examining Affected Elements – Freshwater to Intertidal to Marine Great Lakes Gulf of Mexico 7 What Might Flow from Freshwater to Marine Ecosystems? • Invasive Species • Viruses • Parasites • Fungi • Watermolds • Perkinsus-Like Organisms • Bacteria 8 Katrina and Potential Release Nile Tilapia in Mississippi Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus (sometimes Tilapia nilotica) Native range: Widely distributed in tropical Africa, Middle East. Used extensively in aquaculture world-wide. 9 Pam Schofield – FISC-Gainesville Photos of damaged aquaculture facility on Mississippi coast. In October 2006 we treated ponds at the damaged aquaculture facility with rotenone. Flooding from Hurricane Katrina was about 30 ft at this site. >10,000 individual fishes were collected, the majority of which were Nile tilapia. 10 Ranaviruses Viral Infections infected normal Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS) rhabdovirus Tiger salamander 11 What Else Besides Viruses Might Flow from Freshwater to Marine Ecosystems? infected healthy Leyogonimus polyoon Lake Onalaska, WI Bothriocephalus acheilognathi Colorado River, AZ 12 Chytridiomycosis Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis Harlequin frog (Panama) Chiricahua leopard frog (New Mexico) Mountain yellow-leg frog (California) Karl’s robber frog (Puerto Rico) Extinct Electron Micrograph of sporangia 13 What Else Might Flow from Freshwater to Marine Ecosystems? Watermolds 14 Perkinsus-like Organism in Frogs Definition: A severe systemic fatal infection of ranid tadpoles Agent: Spherical protozoa molecularly related to the oyster disease agent, Perkinsus Wood frog (Rana sylvatica) tadpole with massively enlarged yellow liver 15 Examining Affected Elements – Freshwater to Intertidal to Marine Consequences of Hurricane-Induced Fragmentation of Mangrove Forests on Habitat and Fish Big Big Sable Sable Creek Creek complex, complex, SW SW Florida Florida Carole McIvor, Noah Silverman – USGS FISC-St. Petersburg and Victor Levesque – USGS FISC-Tampa 17 Species in intertidal waters whose population numbers may improve with mangrove habitat restoration 18 Bill Loftus – USGS FISC-Fort Lauderdale Diseases of Shellfish in Nearshore Areas Presence of the pathogen Vibrio parahaemolyticus can be predicted per gram of oyster meat based on remotely sensed data collected by satellites such as sea surface temperature (high levels shown in red). Photo credit: J. Grimes 19 And What About Marine Species in Intertidal Areas That Eat Shellfish? 20 And How About Anadromous Fish that Must Travel from Marine to Freshwater Habitats to Spawn? 21 Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) The Terra and Aqua Earth observing satellites acquire data on ocean chlorophyll fluorescence. Anomalies in ocean chlorophyll fluorescence are used in the detection of HABs. This MODIS image from July 8, 2005, shows a potential harmful bloom in the Baltic Sea. Photo credit: NASA 22 HABs in Nearshore Areas Many species of algae are responsible for producing harmful algal bloom toxins. Photo credit: With permission from TOS and source: http://dinos.anesc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/Jpeg/index.htm 23 24 Examining These Elements – Freshwater to Intertidal to Marine Global Climate Change and Coral Reefs Changes in ocean carbonate chemistry resulting from increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are making it harder for marine organisms to calcify. 26 Ilsa Kuffner – USGS FISC-St. Petersburg This 9-month experiment showed that corals did not acclimate to lower saturation states, and crustose algal growth was drastically inhibited at pCO2 levels predicted for the year 2100. treatment control 27 Ilsa Kuffner – FISC-St. Petersburg Effects on Coral Reef Communities sea grass beds and people snowy grouper conger eel rare raggedtooth shark Ken Sulak – USGS FISC-Gainesville Plankton and Baleen Whales 29 Climate Change Effects on Penguins in the Antarctic 30 Climate Change Effects on Petrels in the Antarctic 31 Climate Change Effects on Seals Weddell Seals and Pups Antarctica 32 Arctic Sea Ice Changes 1981-2007 Keep your eye on the dark blue (warmer waters) just offshore of the North Slope of AK and the reduction in the necessary older thicker ice (shown in red) Extreme and Variable- month by month changes From the National Snow and Ice Data Center 33 August Arctic Ice Loss 1978-2007 34 The Effects of Climate Change on Walrus 35 Walrus Life History – Highly Dependent on Sea Ice Long lived – up to 30 yrs Low reproductive rates Reproductive interval = 2+ yrs Breeds and gives birth on the sea ice • Forages almost exclusively on clams on the sea floor • Top predator of the ocean floor (benthic) food chain • • • • 36 Pacific walrus Winter Ice Edge Breeding Aggregations 37 Pacific walrus Autumn Ice Edge Females Ice Haulouts Males Land Haulouts 38 Females with calves on beaches 39 A. Kochnev And finally… The Effects of Climate Change on Polar Bears 40 Polar Bear Life History – also Highly Dependent on Sea Ice Long lived – up to 30 yrs Low reproductive rates Reproductive interval= 3 yrs Give birth in maternity dens on land and on sea ice • Forage almost exclusively from sea ice on seals • Top of the food web predator • • • • 41 Findings Related to Polar Bears § Sea ice breakup is 3 wks earlier & retreats more offshore § Declines in polar bear body condition recorded § Reduced survival rate of young polar bears § 22% decline in PB population between 1987 and 2004 § Proportion of polar bear dens on sea ice in Beaufort Sea has declined 42 What Does All This Mean? • We still have much to discover about the effects of climate change on aquatic and marine wildlife/health • Wildlife health specialists, resource managers, and climatologists will need to better collaborate on monitoring, modeling and research efforts • Adaptive management efforts will play a large role • This presentation’s intent was to get you to start thinking about interconnections between freshwater, oceans, wildlife health and climate change • It is the new generation of scientists who will lead this new realm of discovery