Whether through loss of habitat or cascading community effects, diseases can shape the very nature of the marine environment. Despite their significant impacts, studies of marine diseases have tended to lag behind their terrestrial equivalents, particularly with regards to their ecological effects. However, in recent decades global research focused on marine disease ecology has expanded at an accelerating rate. This is due in part to increases in disease emergence across many taxa, but can also be attributed to a broader realization that the parasites responsible for disease are themselves important members of marine communities. Understanding their ecological relationships with the environment and their hosts is critical to understanding, conserving, and managing natural and exploited populations, communities, and ecosystems. Courses on marine disease ecology are now starting to emerge and this first textbook in the field will be ideally placed to serve them.
Marine Disease Ecology is suitable for graduate students and researchers in the fields of marine disease ecology, aquaculture, fisheries, veterinary science, evolution and conservation. It will also be of relevance and use to a broader interdisciplinary audience of government agencies, NGOs, and marine resource managers.
Donald C. Behringer, Associate Professor, Marine Ecology and Diseases, University of Florida, Brian R. Silliman, Rachel Carson Professor, Marine Conservation Biology, Duke University, Kevin D. Lafferty, Marine Ecologist and US Geological Survey Principal Investigator, University of California
Donald C. Behringer is an associate professor at the University of Florida (USA) where he holds a joint appointment with Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences and the Emerging Pathogens Institute. He received his B.S. in zoology from the University of Florida and his PhD in ecology from Old Dominion University. Research in his lab is focused on the intersection of disease ecology, environmental change, and fishery ecology. Dr. Behringer was a 2015-2016 US-UK Fulbright Scholar to the University of Exeter and a 2018 University of Florida Global Fellow.
Brian R. Silliman is the Rachel Carson Professor of Marine Conservation Biology. He holds both B.A. and M.S. degrees from the University of Virginia, and completed his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Brown University. His teaching and research are focused on community ecology, conservation and restoration, global change, plant-animal interactions, and evolution and ecological consequences of cooperative behavior.
Kevin D. Lafferty is an ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, which serves the United States by providing reliable scientific information to describe and understand the Earth; minimize loss of life and property from natural disasters; manage water, biological, energy, and mineral resources; and enhance and protect our quality of life. He knows little geology, but does some disease ecology and conservation, especially in coastal ecosystems like coral reefs, estuaries, kelp forests, and (preferably) sandy beaches with nice waves. He entered UCSB in 1981 as a freshman, and stayed there until they let him become the surf team faculty advisor.
