Mass mortality event

A mass mortality event (MME) is an incident that kills a vast number of individuals of a single species in a short period of time.[1] The event may put a species at risk of extinction or upset an ecosystem.[2] This is distinct from the mass die-off associated with short lived and synchronous emergent insect taxa which is a regular and non-catastrophic occurrence.[3]

Causes of MME's include disease and human-related activities such as pollution. Climatic extremes and other environmental influences such as oxygen stress in aquatic environments play a role, as does starvation. In many MME's there are multiple stressors.[2] An analysis of such events from 1940 to 2012 found that these events have become more common for birds, fish and marine invertebrates, but have declined for amphibians and reptiles and not changed for mammals.[4]

  1. ^ Fey, Samuel B.; Siepielski, Adam M.; Nusslé, Sébastien; Cervantes-Yoshida, Kristina; Hwan, Jason L.; Huber, Eric R.; Fey, Maxfield J.; Catenazzi, Alessandro; Carlson, Stephanie M. (27 January 2015). "Recent shifts in the occurrence, cause, and magnitude of animal mass mortality events". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 112 (4): 1083–1088. Bibcode:2015PNAS..112.1083F. doi:10.1073/pnas.1414894112. PMC 4313809. PMID 25583498.
  2. ^ a b Derbyshire, David (25 February 2018). "The terrifying phenomenon that is pushing species towards extinction". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
  3. ^ Rasnitsyn, Alexandr P., ed. (2002). History of insects (Reprint. ed.). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. p. 28. ISBN 9781402000263. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  4. ^ Lee, Jane J. (14 January 2015). "Mass Animal Die-Offs Are on the Rise, Killing Billions and Raising Questions". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 19 January 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2018.