This workshop will bring together scientists actively conducting research on ecology of infectious diseases (EID) in marine, coastal and estuarine systems. It will be coordinated by Rachel Noble, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Jim Porter, University of Georgia. The meeting will be held at San Juan, Puerto Rico, conveniently aligned with the 2011 ASLO Aquatic Sciences meeting to benefit from the ASLO special session on EID in marine systems chaired by the PIs and from participation and discussions by scientists that regularly attend this recognized international meeting.
Intellectual Merit: This is a community planning activity that is of the highest importance to enhance our understanding of the ecology of infectious diseases in marine, coastal and estuarine systems. This workshop will explore the state of the science in ongoing and past marine EID projects and foster discussions about innovative projects in this field. Participants will identify challenges to address tractable questions and partnerships needed to address them, as well as make recommendations for short and long term research directions. They will also identify major differences between EID in terrestrial and marine systems and how EID in marine systems can benefit from knowledge about terrestrial systems.
Through discussions with Principal Investigators in the last Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases (EEID) Meeting held on March 2010, there is wide consensus in the scientific community that this workshop is timely and important. It is key that we identify the challenges related to the control of infectious diseases in the oceans as there is a potential for long distance dispersal of larvae and their associated diseases. Additionally, as mentioned by the PIs, environmental stressors, such as climate change and anthropogenic activity, are affecting microbial growth and survival, and are likely to increase the importance of marine diseases in the near future.
Broader Impacts: The insights from this workshop are likely to be of critical importance in increasing the response of the marine/coastal community to the NSF EID program. The workshop participants will be selected keeping in mind the need to include a diverse cross section of the community. The PIs plan to include young scientists as well as scientists with different backgrounds and from both developed and developing countries in a focused community planning effort. The workshop will potentially increase collaborations between marine scientists and others interested in infectious diseases (e.g. biomedical, veterinary, epidemiologists, pathologists and mathematicians). The results from this community workshop will be disseminated in a format suitable for publication in a major peer-reviewed journal and will be widely available to the scientific community.
(EMID) workshop was convened to review the state of science regarding disease ecology in marine systems, identify novel research areas, ascertain challenges and impediments to progress, and suggest recommendations for advancing this interdisciplinary field. The EMID workshop was held (February 12-13, 2011) in conjunction with the 2011 American Society for Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) Aquatic Sciences meeting (San Juan, Puerto Rico) in order to tightly interface with the Ecology of Infectious Diseases (EID) in Marine Systems Special Session chaired by the NSF workshop conveners. The combination of the workshop, special session, and meeting promoted synergism within the scientific community by stimulating EMID related discussions among diverse scientists who regularly attend this internationally acclaimed meeting. This workshop culminated in a report entitled "Report of a Workshop on the Ecology of Marine Infectious Diseases (EMID) to Explore the State of the Science and Develop Recommendations for the National Science Foundation". The workshop involved the input of 50 internationally recoginized scientists from academia, federal agencies, public agencies, and non-profit organizations to discuss the field of the Ecology of Marine Infectious Disease. Our understanding of infectious disease dynamics in aquatic ecosystems (i.e., freshwater, estuarine, and marine) lags behind that of terrestrial ecosystems. Despite the ever increasing recognition of its importance (Harvell et al., 1999, 2004; Porter et al., 2001; McCallum et al., 2004; Ward and Lafferty, 2004; Stewart et al., 2008; Bienfang et al., 2011), research targeting the ecology of aquatic diseases has received less funding compared to land-based studies. Yet, the concepts and models developed for the terrestrial examples are not specifically transferable to aquatic ecosystems because of fundamental differences in community structure, species diversity, life-history phenomena, and dispersal mechanisms. Aquatic ecosystems consist of complex relationships among hosts and pathogens that challenge traditional views of disease processes. As a result, research on aquatic diseases requires innovative and interdisciplinary strategies to identify, monitor, and model them. Furthermore, impending global climate changes such as rising temperatures, ocean acidification, eutrophication, increased runoff, and inland intrusions of salt water will impact the ecology and distribution of aquatic pathogens and consequently, all the populations of organisms they influence. Ultimately, without a better understanding of aquatic disease dynamics, we will not be able to predict impacts of global climate change or mitigate their effects. To address these topical issues, a 2-day workshop was organized. The EMID workshop included plenary talks on current EID research coupled with structured breakout discussions. A poster session provided an additional opportunity for participants to discuss their work and network with others. Overarching recommendations highlighted through rigorous discussion within the breakout groups included a pressing need to: (1) quantify the importance of marine disease processes to the health and survival of marine and human populations; (2) encourage investigations which characterize EMID responses to climate change; (3) increase capacity building of marine researchers through hands-on graduate training; and finally (4) increase collaboration between marine and terrestrial disease researchers. In addition, participants recommended modifying the current EID evaluation process by restructuring the review panels and including seed grants, rapid response research (RAPID) grants, and more cross-disciplinary training opportunities. The workshop agenda, participant list, and summaries from each breakout group are provided in the appendices. Insights gleaned from this workshop are expected to increase the number and quality of competitive proposals submitted by the marine/coastal scientific community to the existing EID Program. This Program is currently supported by the Biological Sciences and Geosciences (Ocean Sciences Division) Directorates of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). There were several overarching recommendations that stemmed from the workshop, and they were: 1) Quantify the importance of marine disease processes to health and survival of marine and human populations 2) Encourage investigations which characterize EMID responses to climate change 3) Build Capacity for Marine Infectious Disease Researchers 4) Increase collaboration between marine and terrestrial disease researchers 5) Modify the current EID evaluation process The outcome of the meeting was an extensive report that can be requested from Dr. Rachel T. Noble (free) at UNC Chapel Hill Institute of Marine Sciences. The report is currently being reformatted for publication as an editorial in a major ecology journal.
