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How Will Sea-level Rise Affect Infectious Diseases? For Answers, Look to the Past.

We have all heard about global warming, climate change, and rising sea levels in the news and in our science classes at school. And while we know that these changes will have an affect on the world and our environment another pressing concern brought to light by paleontologist John Huntley has been about the effect of infectious diseases and parasites changing with the rising and warm tides. Huntley basis for this research directed his attention to about 11,700 years ago when higher and waters caused a large increase in the number of parasites in clams around the risen coasts. These infectious parasites were able to adapt and thrive more in a changed environment and this is the concern of many scientists as the sea levels are once again beginning to raise and warm as they did in the past.

Huntley and his collages did extensive research around these clams and climate change and their study took them to some very diverse locations.They went to Northern Italy and to China's Pearl River Delta to examine more clams where water levels have risen and where these infectious parasites were found to be thriving in the past. When they observed clams at lower sea levels the traces of flatworms in the clams were lower than those which were higher up and found lodged in rock sediment where the sea had previously risen to.

Now while all the conclusions for this study have not been drawn Huntley has been able to make a few. The first is that their is a definite relation to warming water and increased nutrient availability for parasites to thrive and the second is that this study may have serious implications for human health and fisheries in this time of climate change.

I found this article interesting because it shows me that evolution is still taking place as with these diseases and parasites being able to adapt and change based off of their environment. I believe this indicates that we as a species will have to change as well to be able to fend off these adaptive diseases. I also find it amazing that before anything serious has happened we are already preparing for the worst by looking into the affect of sea-levels on diseases and clams in the past and also in modern times. I believe that as we continue on with such studies like this we will be able to more readily predict large disease outbreaks before they can potentially harm or kill many people and that is an amazing thing.

- Tyson Ngatikaura
BIOL 1610-007

Huntley, John (2018). How Will Sea-Level Rise Affect Infectious Diseases? For Answers, Look to the Past. National Science Foundation, 12 Mar. 2018, www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=244725&org=NSF&from=news.

Comments

  1. UnknownApril 24, 2018 at 8:52 AM

    Global warming, and the associated rising water levels, has always interested me. Researching the macro-level changes that can result is fascinating, particularly in regards to human health. As a student seeking a degree in the health sciences, I would be curious to see similar research (i.e. increased risk of disease) relating to the human population. I'm not exactly sure how you would design that kind of research, though.
    -SP

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  2. UnknownApril 27, 2018 at 4:53 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. UnknownApril 27, 2018 at 4:54 PM

    This is a very interesting study. However, I am curious if there is a way we can prevent these diseases from infecting the animals (clams) all together. You mentioned that this type of research will help us be able to predict disease outbreaks. Is there any possibility that we could alter the clams genetic makeup to help them avoid infection? Thus, preventing any chance of disease outbreaks?

    -KK

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    Replies
    1. UnknownApril 27, 2018 at 5:46 PM

      As stated previously in the post the clams seem to be the most effected when water levels rose and I'm not sure if there are ways we can force evolution to happen in certain species. However, in a recent academic journal in Preventive Medicine Reports (PMR) titled "Zika virus: A call to action for physicians in the era of climate change" the authors talked about a correlation between climate change and an increase in the Virus Zika (Tony Yang, 2016). You asked if their is any possibility that we could alter the clams genetic makeup to avoid the infection, in my opinion the better preventive measure to stop these viruses from spreading and evolving in a climate changing world is to try our best to address and help prevent huge changes in the climate. In the PMR's report they call on physicians to communicate health benefits of addressing climate change using evidence-based language in their local communities and policy makers. And I agree but I think it will take more than just the physicians and scientists to get these climate change (disease preventing) policies moved and into action. - T.D.N.

      Yang, Y. Tony (2016). Zika virus: A call to action for physicians in the era of climate change. Preventive Medicine Reports, vol #4, pg. 444-446. December, 2016

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