Climate influence on Vibrio and associated human diseases during the past half-century in the coastal North Atlantic
Contributed by Rita R. Colwell, June 22, 2016 (sent for review January 20, 2016; reviewed by Craig Baker-Austin, Peter G. Brewer, and Jaime Martinez-Urtaza)
Significance
Long-term ecological and paleontological data analyses indicate climate change is having an impact on marine eukaryotic communities. However, little is known about effects of global warming on marine prokaryotes, which are, by far, the largest living biomass in world oceans. Here, we report, for the first time to our knowledge, that a warming trend in sea surface temperature is strongly associated with spread of vibrios, an important group of marine prokaryotes, and emergence of human diseases caused by these pathogens. Our results are based on formalin-preserved plankton samples collected in the past half-century from the temperate North Atlantic.
Abstract
Climate change is having a dramatic impact on marine animal and plant communities but little is known of its influence on marine prokaryotes, which represent the largest living biomass in the world oceans and play a fundamental role in maintaining life on our planet. In this study, for the first time to our knowledge, experimental evidence is provided on the link between multidecadal climatic variability in the temperate North Atlantic and the presence and spread of an important group of marine prokaryotes, the vibrios, which are responsible for several infections in both humans and animals. Using archived formalin-preserved plankton samples collected by the Continuous Plankton Recorder survey over the past half-century (1958–2011), we assessed retrospectively the relative abundance of vibrios, including human pathogens, in nine areas of the North Atlantic and North Sea and showed correlation with climate and plankton changes. Generalized additive models revealed that long-term increase in Vibrio abundance is promoted by increasing sea surface temperatures (up to ∼1.5 °C over the past 54 y) and is positively correlated with the Northern Hemisphere Temperature (NHT) and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) climatic indices (P < 0.001). Such increases are associated with an unprecedented occurrence of environmentally acquired Vibrio infections in the human population of Northern Europe and the Atlantic coast of the United States in recent years.
Acknowledgments
We thank all past and present members and supporters of the CPR survey whose efforts have enabled the establishment and long-term maintenance of the CPR dataset and the archived samples used in this study. We are particularly indebted to Robert Camp (Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science) for helpful assistance and advice in the selection and analysis of CPR samples. We also greatly thank and acknowledge Dr. Paolo Vassallo (DISTAV, University of Genoa) for his valuable help with GAM analysis. This work was supported by the Royal Society “International Exchanges 2013/R2(inc CNRS)” (Grant IE130623) and the FP7-AQUAVALENS project (Grant 311846). The CPR survey is supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council and the UK Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs. The Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, College Park (NIH Grant 2RO1A1039129-11A2) are also acknowledged.
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Cover image: Pictured is a fossilized branched rhizome, a modified plant stem, from the early vascular plant Drepanophycus in 410-million-year-old fossil soil from Yunnan, China. Jinzhuang Xue et al. found that the complex network of Drepanophycus rhizomes was spread extensively throughout the soil, implying that long-lived, belowground rhizome systems contributed to the accumulation and formation of early rooted soils in Asia and curtailed soil erosion. These findings suggest that plant–soil interactions occurred at an early stage of vascular plant radiation. See the article by Xue et al. on pages 9451–9456. Image courtesy of Jinzhuang Xue.
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Published online: August 8, 2016
Published in issue: August 23, 2016
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Acknowledgments
We thank all past and present members and supporters of the CPR survey whose efforts have enabled the establishment and long-term maintenance of the CPR dataset and the archived samples used in this study. We are particularly indebted to Robert Camp (Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science) for helpful assistance and advice in the selection and analysis of CPR samples. We also greatly thank and acknowledge Dr. Paolo Vassallo (DISTAV, University of Genoa) for his valuable help with GAM analysis. This work was supported by the Royal Society “International Exchanges 2013/R2(inc CNRS)” (Grant IE130623) and the FP7-AQUAVALENS project (Grant 311846). The CPR survey is supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council and the UK Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs. The Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, College Park (NIH Grant 2RO1A1039129-11A2) are also acknowledged.
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The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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