Rising ocean temperatures are putting fur seal pups at greater risk of death from hookworm infections, according to new findings published in eLife.
The results shed new light on how warmer oceans can alter specific physiological processes in marine mammals, and suggest that infectious diseases could cause higher mortality rates if temperatures keep rising.
“Increasing ocean temperatures are associated with changes in the patterns of wind and ocean currents, which cause a decrease in the cycling of nutrients and, by extension, the abundance of life including fishes,” says first author Mauricio Seguel, Postdoctoral Associate in the Odum School of Ecology at the University of Georgia, Athens, US.
Read more at eLife
Image Credit: Seguel et al.