Ballast water as a vector of coral pathogens in the Gulf of Mexico: The case of the Cayo Arcas coral reef

Aguirre-Macedo, M. Leopoldina; Martínez, Víctor; Herrera-Silveira, Jorge A.; Valdés-Lozano, David; Herrera-Rodríguez, Miguel; Olvera‐Novoa, Miguel A.

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2008.05.022

Cited by 40 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Consequently, most microbial surveys in BW have focused on only a few taxa, such as pathogenic bacteria (e.g. Aguirre‐Macedo et al., ; McCarthy & Khambaty, ; Ruiz, Rawlings, et al., ) and toxic dinoflagellates (e.g. Hallegraeff, ; Hallegraeff & Bolch, ), even though studies have estimated a huge abundance of bacteria and viruses are likely present (Drake, Doblin, & Dobbs, ; Ruiz, Fofonoff, et al., 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular characterisation of protistan species and communities in ships’ ballast water across three U.S. coasts

Lohan

Fleischer

Carney

et al. 2017

Diversity and Distributions

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Aim We characterised protistan taxa in ships’ ballast water (BW) arriving to port systems across three U.S. coasts. Our goals were to compare (1) diversity and (2) community composition of protists in BW among and between port systems. Location Chesapeake Bay in Virginia (Port of Hampton Roads), Galveston Bay in Texas (Ports of Texas City, Houston and Bayport) and Prince William Sound in Alaska (Port of Valdez). Methods We collected 61 BW samples from 39 vessels from May to August 2013. We conducted amplicon‐based high‐throughput sequencing (HTS) using the hypervariable V4 domain of the small subunit (SSU) gene of the ribosomal RNA (rRNA) complex to identify protistan taxa. Results We detected 8,561 OTUs from protistan taxa, including 35 taxonomic groups. We found high protistan diversity in the BW entering all three port systems, with the dominant taxa belonging to the Alveolata, Rhizaria and Stramenopiles. Thirty‐eight taxa were found in high relative abundance (>10,000 sequences), and some were recovered from multiple samples within and across ports, indicating both a high relative abundance and frequency of introduction events. The composition of the protistan communities entering each of the port systems appeared to vary depending on BW source, with those entering Valdez being consistently more similar to each other than those entering other port systems. Main conclusions This study is the most comprehensive assessment of protistan diversity in BW and has important implications for microbial biogeography and invasions. Ships’ BW is importing distinct and diverse protistan communities to U.S. coasts with high propagule pressure for some taxa, creating opportunity for invasion by novel taxa. Further, our results demonstrate the broad‐scale movement of marine protists that has occurred through BW, highlighting a discrepancy between the large magnitude of introductions and limited number of known microbial invasions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular characterisation of protistan species and communities in ships’ ballast water across three U.S. coasts

Lohan

Fleischer

Carney

et al. 2017

Diversity and Distributions

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“…Potential pathogens might be disseminated in the marine environment due to long-distance transport and discharge of ship ballast water (used for ship stability and trim). For example, ballast water has been shown to contain epidemiccausing serotypes of V. cholerae, such as O1 and O139 (McCarthy & Khambaty, 1994;Ruiz et al, 2000;Aguirre-Macedo et al, 2008), as well as other potential human pathogens such as faecal coliforms, E. coli (including strain O157), Enterococcus spp. (McCarthy & Khambaty, 1994;Aguirre-Macedo et al, 2008) or harmful algae (Masó & Garcés, 2006).…”

Section: Introduction Of Microbial Pathogens Into the Marine Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, ballast water has been shown to contain epidemiccausing serotypes of V. cholerae, such as O1 and O139 (McCarthy & Khambaty, 1994;Ruiz et al, 2000;Aguirre-Macedo et al, 2008), as well as other potential human pathogens such as faecal coliforms, E. coli (including strain O157), Enterococcus spp. (McCarthy & Khambaty, 1994;Aguirre-Macedo et al, 2008) or harmful algae (Masó & Garcés, 2006). Concerns of the danger of ballast water discharges, not only for the spread of microbial pathogens but also of invasive species, have resulted in the establishment of guidelines for ballast water management and the promulgation of the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ship's Ballast Water and Sediments in 2004 by the International Maritime Organization.…”

Section: Introduction Of Microbial Pathogens Into the Marine Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropogenic perturbations in marine microbial communities

et al. 2011

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Human activities impact marine ecosystems at a global scale and all levels of complexity of life. Despite their importance as key players in ecosystem processes, the stress caused to microorganisms has been greatly neglected. This fact is aggravated by difficulties in the analysis of microbial communities and their high diversity, making the definition of patterns difficult. In this review, we discuss the effects of nutrient increase, pollution by organic chemicals and heavy metals and the introduction of antibiotics and pathogens into the environment. Microbial communities respond positively to nutrients and chemical pollution by increasing cell numbers. There are also significant changes in community composition, increases in diversity and high temporal variability. These changes, which evidence the modification of the environmental conditions due to anthropogenic stress, usually alter community functionality, although this aspect has not been explored in depth. Altered microbial communities in human-impacted marine environments can in turn have detrimental effects on human health (i.e. spread of pathogens and antibiotic resistance). New threats to marine ecosystems, i.e. related to climate change, could also have an impact on microbial communities. Therefore, an effort dedicated to analyse the microbial compartment in detail should be made when studying the impact of anthropogenic activities on marine ecosystems.

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“…This is, of course, less of a constraint today and for the foreseeable future due to a diversity of globalized transport opportunities. Specifically, agriculture trade (Arzt et al, 2010), livestock movement (Fevre et al, 2006), wildlife trade (Karesh et al, 2005), human travel and migration (MacPherson et al, 2009), ship ballast water (Aguirre-Macedo et al, 2008), auto tire trade (Hawley et al, 1987), and the global transport of desert dust containing microbiota regularly move pathogens, vectors, and infected hosts all around the Earth.…”

Section: Transport To New Climate-friendly Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate Change and the Geographic Distribution of Infectious Diseases

Rosenthal

2009

EcoHealth

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Our ability to predict the effects of climate change on the spread of infectious diseases is in its infancy. Numerous, and in some cases conflicting, predictions have been developed, principally based on models of biological processes or mapping of current and historical disease statistics. Current debates on whether climate change, relative to socioeconomic determinants, will be a major influence on human disease distributions are useful to help identify research needs but are probably artificially polarized. We have at least identified many of the critical geophysical constraints, transport opportunities, biotic requirements for some disease systems, and some of the socioeconomic factors that govern the process of migration and establishment of parasites and pathogens. Furthermore, we are beginning to develop a mechanistic understanding of many of these variables at specific sites. Better predictive understanding will emerge in the coming years from analyses regarding how these variables interact with each other.

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Ballast water as a vector of coral pathogens in the Gulf of Mexico: The case of the Cayo Arcas coral reef

Cited by 40 publications

References 20 publications

Molecular characterisation of protistan species and communities in ships’ ballast water across three U.S. coasts

Molecular characterisation of protistan species and communities in ships’ ballast water across three U.S. coasts

Anthropogenic perturbations in marine microbial communities

Climate Change and the Geographic Distribution of Infectious Diseases

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