Ever wonder if herbivores help spread plant pathogens in our oceans like they do on land? 🤔 ✨Stoked✨ to share our paper @ESAEcology showing how #eelgrass herbivores facilitate transmission of seagrass wasting #disease: https://t.co/LtIISutQYT (🎨: Raquel Santamaria Germani)

Delighted to share our team’s #eelgrass work today @HopkinsMarine! Swing by Agassiz @ 12 PM to learn about health and resilience of #eelgrass in the Northeast Pacific 🌊🌱

EEB's prof emerita @DrewHarvell and her lab, part of collaborative research team showing how herbivores like sea snails can promote the spread of seagrass wasting disease @CornellCAS @CornellCALS @CornellCIS @o_jgraham @CornellNews https://t.co/fQGHmyKdcg

Finally, delighted my photo made the cover of this month's @ESAEcology issue! So glad #eelgrass is getting some love 🥰

Terrific collab on these papers! 🙌 @ocean_Critter @deannabeatty @ginnyeckert_ak @brendanh0gan @timlhawthorne @HessingLewis @PrenticeCarolyn @fionatomasn @BoYangGeo @DrewHarvell @JEmmettDuffy @CornellEEB @AtkinsonCenter @CornellCIS @MarineBiol_FHL @SmithsonianEnv

Overall, these papers show impacts of herbivores on disease dynamics in eelgrass. They highlight how biological processes can have ecosystem-level impacts (ex: disease outbreaks). Understanding these processes can help us determine why meadows respond differently to stressors!

The second, led by @lillian_aoki, shows herbivore grazing was associated w +29% disease prevalence in meadows from AK to southern CA, USA. Herbivore presence—and type of herbivore—are important in influencing eelgrass health. https://t.co/fJmwtcv2xs

Our first shows the role of herbivores in facilitating disease transmission via grazing scars. We also demonstrate that herbivores have different feeding preferences (for diseased or healthy eelgrass). https://t.co/sBYM0ocIGJ

Thanks to @CornellNews for featuring our team’s recent 2 papers in @ESAEcology on the role of eelgrass herbivores in seagrass wasting disease dynamics! 🌊🌱🐌🦠 https://t.co/k5MH5Bom0B

What do you get when you combine: 🖥️ scientists 🌊 ecologists 🌱🐌🦠 #eelgrass, herbivores, and a pathogen? Latitudinal-scale studies showing the impact of marine herbivores on plant pathogen transmission! 😲 Terrific collab with many partners 👏 @CornellCIS @CornellEEB

Passionate about marine biology, travel, and working with amazing people? We are #hiring two positions: a technician to help support research/data projects AND a postdoc to study climate vulnerability and functional change in the Florida Reef Tract. 🧐 https://t.co/xhmvghO3jD

Attention, students: Ready for hands-on undegrad marine research? #UDel is offering a @NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program for 10 weeks this summer, from June 2 to August 8, at UD's coastal campus in Lewes, DE. /1

Want to learn about Marine #DiseaseEcology? 🌊🦠 Apply to take a training workshop @MarineBiol_FHL (June 11-July 2, 2025) with Dr. Maya Groner! 😁 Generous scholarships available! 💸 Apps due Feb. 1 ⏰ Check it out: 👀 https://t.co/LB7vLVTrgM

Our paper was published in Environmental Microbiology 1 yr ago (but I was in Costa Rica at the time). Better late than never to share it! 😅 If you have trouble accessing it, please DM me! 📨

Big thanks to my terrific co-authors and contributors! 👏 🦠dream team: @eadamczyk8 @SiobhanSchenk Laura Parfrey 🔴 13 @cornellCALS undergrad co-authors, who helped run the experiments. Go, Big Red! 🙌 @DrewHarvell @cornellEEB @cornellCSCU @MarineBiol_FHL

Between diseased and asymptomatic eelgrass from a natural meadow, bacterial composition and richness varied in one of the two years. This suggests that the influence of disease on the eelgrass microbiome may vary with environment. 🌊☀️

1) Eelgrass with an *intact* microbiome had higher disease levels compared to eelgrass with an experimentally altered microbiome 🤯 This was the *opposite* of what we'd expected and does not show a protective role of the eelgrass microbiome against disease.

So, we embarked on a quest to better understand how the #eelgrass microbiome influences seagrass wasting disease interactions. Here are a few key takeaways: 💡

Microbiomes can have outsized impacts on plant and animal health. 🦠 We're learning more about bacteria living on #seagrass leaves, but there's still much to explore about how they interact with pathogens.

Does the eelgrass #microbiome protect against disease? Does the microbiome vary between diseased and asymptomatic eelgrass? 🤔 My team explored these questions via experiments and field surveys at @MarineBiol_FHL. Check it out! https://t.co/LEVZwZGZ0A (🎨: Sylvia Heredia)

IceIce disease is lower on algal farms with seagrass. Congrats to our team @JoleahLamb, @EvanFiorenza , NurAbu, @AtkinsonCenter, @CornellCALS, @UCIrvine https://t.co/e51BPu0drW #ecosystemservices #plantdisease #oceanfarming #aquaculture #bluefoods #plantmicrobeinteractions