FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Bill Schaller
[email protected]
617-432-0441
Method Assesses Marine Ecosystem Changes and Their Impact
Researchers at Harvard Medical School have released a report that outlines a methodology to assess marine ecosystem changes and their impacts on human health, the environment, and the economy. The newly developed methodology uses marine-related diseases as indicators of change and is intended to assist scientists in identifying trends in marine ecosystem decline, investigating it causes, and implementing strategies to counter it.
"People need to appreciate the link between the health of our waterways and their personal health," explains Paul Epstein, MD, MPH, associate director of the Harvard Medical School Center for Health and Global Environment and lead author of the report. "Diseases are being reported with increasing frequency across a wide-range of marine species and habitats. At the same time, we also have seen an increase in the number of people who have contracted a viral or bacterial illness as a result of eating seafood or swimming in affected waters."
The report, "Marine Ecosystems: Emerging Diseases as Indicators of Change," was presented at a Congressional briefing in Washington, D.C. on Monday, December 7.
The report culminates a three-year study by the Harvard Health, Ecological and Economic Dimensions of Global Change Program (HEED). It was funded in part by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Global Programs and the National Aeronautics and Space Agency.
The report is available online (http://heed.harvard.edu/).
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