Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
While the COVID-19 pandemic is creating new awareness of the dangers of multi-host infectious disease for humans on land, big impacts of infectious pathogens are occurring under the ocean. The Harvell lab is focusing on the ecology of underwater disease of foundation and keystone species and their changing risk with ocean warming. I will talk about transmission biology and impacts of an infectious protozoan, Labyrinthula zosterae, in eelgrass meadows from San Diego to Alaska and also an outbreak affecting over twenty species of seastar in our waters and resulting in endangerment of sunflower stars. In both cases and several other examples from oysters to salmon, ocean warming affects risk of disease. My recent book, Ocean Outbreak, also describes the increasing disease risk posed by a changing climate.
https://alumni.wwu.edu/event/ocean-outbreaks-salish-sea
While the COVID-19 pandemic is creating new awareness of the dangers of multi-host infectious disease for humans on land, big impacts of infectious pathogens are occurring under the ocean. The Harvell lab is focusing on the ecology of underwater disease of foundation and keystone species and their changing risk with ocean warming. I will talk about transmission biology and impacts of an infectious protozoan, Labyrinthula zosterae, in eelgrass meadows from San Diego to Alaska and also an outbreak affecting over twenty species of seastar in our waters and resulting in endangerment of sunflower stars. In both cases and several other examples from oysters to salmon, ocean warming affects risk of disease. My recent book, Ocean Outbreak, also describes the increasing disease risk posed by a changing climate.
https://alumni.wwu.edu/event/ocean-outbreaks-salish-sea
