5 Billion Sea Stars Have Shattered and Died Over the Past 10 Years, Scientists May Finally Know Why
The cause of a sea star-wasting disease was determined to be a bacterium known as Vibrio pectenicida
The disease causes sea stars to disintegrate to death in a white, goo-like substance
An estimated 95% of sunflower sea stars died during the 10-year epidemicAfter an estimated 5 billion sea stars died due to a wasting disease in oceans globally, scientists have identified the root cause of the disease.
A team of researchers identified the cause as a bacterium known as Vibrio pectenicida. The team reported its findings this week in Nature Ecology & Evolution. The disease causes starfish to disintegrate into a white, slimy substance.
The disease is the largest documented epidemic for a noncommercial species, and it has affected more than 20 species of sea stars along the West Coast of North America, Scientific American reports. An estimated 90% of sunflower sea stars ( known as Pycnopodia helianthoides) have died from the illness, making them a critically endangered species.
Sunflower sea stars are capable of sprouting 24 arms and growing to the size of a bicycle tire, per the Associated Press. The epidemic has lasted a decade. The same strain of bacteria has also infected shellfish.
The international research project was led by scientists from the Hakai Institute, the University of British Columbia (UBC), and the University of Washington—and conducted in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy, the Tula Foundation, the U.S. Geological Survey's Western Fisheries Research Center, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The first author on the study and an evolutionary ecologist at the Hakai Institute and UBC, Melanie Prentice, told Tula: "When we lose billions of sea stars, that really shifts the ecological dynamics.'
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Prentice went on to describe the impact of losing a sea star. 'In the absence of sunflower stars, sea urchin populations increase, which means the loss of kelp forests, and that has broad implications for all the other marine species and humans that rely on them," she explained. "So losing a sea star goes far beyond the loss of that single species.'
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With the sharp decline in sea stars, the sea urchins that usually serve as a food source rapidly expanded in population. In turn, they ate nearly 95% of the kelp forests in Northern California within a decade. These kelp forests help provide food and habitats for a wide variety of marine life, including fish, sea otters and seals, per the AP.
With these new findings, researchers are hoping to revive the sea star population and restore balance to the ecosystem, the outlet reported.
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