UW Study Shows Parasite Decline in Puget Sound
A University of Washington fisheries scientist says her research shows that fish parasites in Puget Sound have been in decline over the last century.
“We all have this sense that as climate change proceeds that what we get is increased parasite outbreaks; that we are messing with Earth and that Earth is messing (with us) right back,” Associate Professor Chelsea L. Wood of the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences said in early January.
Until the study was conducted, Wood said, there was little information on wildlife parasites other than the impact of parasites on humans. What they were shocked to learn, she said, is that parasite life cycles are like Rube Goldberg machines; the more complex they are, the more likely they are to fail.
What Wood and her colleagues found was that p...