It's Getting Hot in Here

We've talked about how you may not be getting Alaskan crab legs this year because of the rising ocean temperatures in their habitat previously. It looks like you'll be missing out on something else too. That something else is... parasites. While they aren't directly going to impact the Alaskan economy, they may be impacting a lot of other things both directly and indirectly.

In the second largest estuary in the US, Puget Sound, scientists have noticed and recorded a mass death event of marine organisms that rely on living hosts to survive. Or by definition, parasites. What is an estuary? An estuary is the tidal mouth of a large river where the tide meets the stream. In other words, it's like an intermediate space that is partially enclosed where a river or stream meets the ocean. Located in Washington State, Puget Sound is home to more than 3,000 different species of invertebrates (animals lacking backbones such as sea urchins, octopuses, clams, and oysters). Researchers at the University of Washington have found that the parasite numbers have dropped by 38% for every degree Celsius of warming in the sea surface temperature from data collected between 1880 and 2019. The study is the largest and longest dataset on parasite population collected anywhere in the world, interestingly enough. For those of you who are not data enthusiasts, it is difficult to find good data prior to the 1950s or so let alone prior to the 1900s. Don't believe us? Try to find usable stock market data from the stock market's inception and let us know how that search goes.

Moving back to the topic at hand, is the decrease in parasites a problem? In short, more than likely yes but the impact is relatively unknown as of right now. It is not clear how the ecosystems have and will change without the influence of parasites culling the populations. No one really cares about parasites because they aren't cute and fluffy and as far as we know do not serve a direct purpose to creating food or aiding with the creation of food via some sort of natural pathway (ie: seed distribution via birds or pollination by bees) nor are they something people keep as pets. In the same respect, no one really cares about wasps or beetles or leeches and the fluctuations in their populations are not something that reaches national or international news.

So, who is worried about these population fluctuations observed in parasites? Biologists, conservationists, and anyone looking at the impact of climate change. Again, there aren't a ton of studies nor ecological surveys that consider parasites when looking at conservation efforts and climate change impact but consider that if we saw the same population shift in any vertebrate conservation efforts would be immediate. It's just that parasites are only given attention when their populations are too high as they impact populations of their hosts negatively. We'll keep an eye on this development as more information about impact and changes are released. The more you know, right? 

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