Publications by authors named "I Hewson"
Article Synopsis
- Echinoderms play vital roles in coral reef ecosystems as detritivores and herbivores but experience boom and bust cycles due to food and predation factors, necessitating pathogen surveillance for ecological understanding.
- The study conducted viral surveillance on two common reef echinoderms using metagenomics during a mass mortality event and compared normal specimens from different locations to identify viral associations.
- Findings indicated that one echinoderm lacked common viral infections, while the other showed similarities to viruses found in other species, suggesting methods used may affect viral detection and highlighting the need for further investigation into the role of viruses in mass mortalities.
Seagrasses are marine angiosperms that form highly productive and diverse ecosystems. These ecosystems, however, are declining worldwide. Plant-associated microbes affect critical functions like nutrient uptake and pathogen resistance, which has led to an interest in the seagrass microbiome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSea urchins are critically important herbivores on coral reefs. A new study shows that a disease that decimated sea urchins in the Caribbean in 2022 has spread to the Red Sea, further threatening coral ecosystems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMarine invertebrate mass mortality events (MMEs) threaten biodiversity and have the potential to catastrophically alter ecosystem structure. A proximal question around acute MMEs is their etiologies and/or environmental drivers. Establishing a robust cause of mortality is challenging in marine habitats due to the complexity of the interactions among species and the free dispersal of microorganisms from surrounding waters to metazoan microbiomes.
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