INSIGHTS PHOTO: DREW HARVELL 1210 13 MARCH 2015 • VOL 347 ISSUE 6227 sciencemag.org SCIENCE Emergency response for marine diseases MARINE DISEASES CAN decimate popula- tions and can have substantial ecological, economic, and social impacts. Recent disease outbreaks in marine mammals, shellfish, sponges, seagrasses, crustaceans, corals, and fishes demonstrate the poten- tial for catastrophic effects, including reduced biodiversity, community shifts, local extirpation of species, disruption of ecosystem services, and loss of fisheries (1, 2). Currently, seastar wasting syndrome threatens marine populations by impairing ecological integrity through shifts in popula- tions of foundation species and declines in ecosystem services. In the past year, over 20 seastar species on both coasts of the United States have declined to the point of local extirpation (3). At this point, very limited funding is available to identify, monitor, forecast, and mitigate marine diseases. The Marine Disease Emergency Act (H.R. 5546), rein- troduced by Rep. Dennis Heck (D-Wash.) to the House of Representatives in February 2015, would provide immediate resources to mount a rapid response when marine infectious diseases are first detected. If the legislation passes, the funding would enable (i) a basic research program to increase diagnostic tools, understand pathogenesis, and quantify epidemiological processes; (ii) a surveillance program to identify marine disease outbreaks; (iii) a marine disease forecasting program; and (iv) directed mitigation programs to reduce the intensity of disease outbreaks and their downstream impacts [e.g., (4)]. These activities were only possible to a very limited extent during the recent seastar wasting syndrome outbreaks. As our global reliance on oceans for food, ecosystem services, and cultural activities rises, anthropogenic stresses to the oceans are increasing, creating new opportunities for disease. This past year (2014) was also the warmest on record, and continually rising temperatures under climate change are predicted to increase seagrass wasting disease, seastar wasting, abalone withering syndrome, coral bleach- ing, infectious coral diseases, and risk for human infection by zoonotic vibrio spe- cies (5–8). If passed, the Marine Disease Emergency Act will greatly enhance capacity for rapid responses to marine disease outbreaks, maximizing opportuni- ties for research and management of these diseases and their downstream impacts. Maya Groner, 1 * Rachel Breyta, 2 Andy Dobson, 3 Carolyn S. Friedman, 2 Brett Froelich, 4 Melissa Garren, 5 Frances Gulland, 6 Jeffrey Maynard, 7 Ernesto Weil, 8 Sandy Wyllie-Echeverria, 9 Drew Harvell 7 1 Centre for Veterinary and Epidemiological Research, Department of Health Management, Atlantic Veterinary College, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PE, C1A 4P3, Canada. 2 School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. 3 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. 4 Department of Marine Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. 5 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. 6 The Marine Mammal Center, Sausalito, CA 94965, USA. 7 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. 8 Department of Marine Sciences, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, Mayaguez, PR 00680, USA. 9 Friday Harbor Laboratories, University of Washington, Friday Harbor, WA 98250, USA. *Corresponding author. E-mail: mgroner@upei.ca REFERENCES 1. C. A. Burge et al., Annu. Rev. Mar. Sci. 6, 249 (2014). 2. K. D. Lafferty et al., Annu. Rev. Mar. Sci. 7, 471 (2015). 3. I. Hewson et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 111, 17278 (2014). 4. J. A. Maynard et al., Coral Reefs 30, 485 (2011). 5. L. M. Crosson et al., Dis. Aquat. Org. 108, 261 (2014). 6. J. W. Turner et al., Environ. Microbiol. 16, 1019 (2014). 7. J. C. Bull, E. J. Kenyon, K. J. Cook, Oecologia 169, 135 (2012). 8. D. Ruiz-Morenol et al., Dis. Aquat. Org. 100, 249 (2012). Sparing grasslands: Map misinterpreted J. W. VELDMAN et al. argue that the world’s ancient (old-growth) grasslands should be spared from restoration-motivated tree planting (“Tyranny of trees in grassy biomes,” Letters, 30 January, p. 484). We strongly agree. However, they also claim that the global Atlas of Forest Landscape Restoration Opportunities (1–3)—created by the World Resources Institute, International Union for Conservation of Nature, and University of Maryland—calls for such affor- estation. It does not. Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) is a process to regain ecological integrity and enhance human well-being in deforested or degraded forest landscapes (4). Its goal is to enhance native ecosystem functions and bio- diversity, not to increase forest cover per se. FLR does not call for increasing tree cover beyond what would be ecologically appro- priate for a particular location, and should not cause any loss or conversion of natural forests, grasslands, or other ecosystems. We created the Atlas to estimate the global potential for FLR, thereby underpinning the formula- tion of the Bonn Challenge (“to restore 150 mil- lion hectares of deforested and degraded forest lands by 2020”) (5), and to identify areas where a more refined analysis is warranted. It is important to note that the map is coarse. We used only globally consistent geospatial data sets at a 1-km resolution. We defined forest landscapes broadly, considering climate, soils, and ecoregions. All lands biophysically capable of supporting a tree canopy cover of at least 10% were included. Given its coarseness, the Atlas was not intended or designed as a tool to guide precisely where restoration should occur, or to decide what interventions may be suitable for a particular location. Rather, national and subnational assessments are needed to determine what is ecologically, socially, and economically appropriate in a particular context. These assessments should consider local ecological conditions, engage local experts and stakeholders, use local definitions, and incorporate richer, higher-resolution data. To help with this, we developed a Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (6). To our knowledge, no global map of old- growth grasslands has yet been published. Mapping these areas is difficult, as they form gradients in the landscape, have shifted over time, and depend heavily on the periodicity of fires (7), which may or may not have been subject to human influence. We invite researchers, including Veldman et al., to collaborate on a more in-depth map- ping of ecosystem restoration opportunities, which can incorporate new information on the world’s old-growth grasslands and other important biomes as it becomes available. Lars Laestadius, 1 * Stewart Maginnis, 2 Susan Minnemeyer, 1 Peter V. Potapov, 3 Katie Reytar, 1 Carole Saint-Laurent 2 Edited by Jennifer Sills LETTERS Ochre star losing its second arm to wasting disease. Published by AAAS on March 12, 2015 www.sciencemag.org Downloaded from on March 12, 2015 www.sciencemag.org Downloaded from