Fewer parasites in the Indian River lagoon signal big ecosystem problems

FAU Harbor Branch study uses parasite data to assess ecological health and food web disruption

Florida Atlantic University

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Florida's Indian River Lagoon suffers from frequent harmful algae blooms (HABs) caused by excess nutrients from farms, septic systems and urban areas.

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Credit: Brian Lapointe, FAU Harbor Branch

While an abundance of parasites might seem like a bad thing, their absence actually signals trouble in the environment. Parasites are found throughout nature and are part of nearly every major animal group. Many ecosystems with rich wildlife also have a wide variety of parasites, since parasites depend on specific hosts to survive.

When human activities like pollution disturb ecosystems, these host–parasite relationships can break down. Because some parasites need several different hosts to complete their life cycles, their presence can tell us a lot about the health and complexity of an ecosystem.

In the 1970s, the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) was considered one of Florida’s cleanest coastal lagoons. Today, the IRL, which spans 156 miles along Florida’s east coast, suffers from frequent harmful algae blooms (HABs) caused by excess nutrients from farms, septic systems and urban areas. These blooms have severely reduced seagrass beds – vital habitats for fish and invertebrates – which still haven’t recovered.

As such, researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and Charles E. Schmidt College of Science and from Florida Oceanographic Society suspected that parasite levels in the IRL would be affected by these environmental changes. Despite a few records, no long-term parasite datasets exist for the IRL. To help fill that gap, researchers used a meta-analysis approach – comparing their findings with global data from similar species and ecosystems.

Results of the study, published in the journal Estuaries and Coasts, found that parasites were less common in the IRL compared to other coastal and estuarine ecosystems around the world. In fact, the proportion of infected hosts in the IRL was about 11% lower than what is typically observed in similar environments. 

More importantly, researchers saw an even bigger drop – about 17% – in the prevalence of larval-stage parasites that rely on multiple hosts to complete their life cycles. These types of parasites often depend on a stable and complex food web, moving from prey to predator as they develop. The fact that they’re much less common in the IRL suggests the local food web may be simplified or disrupted, likely due to environmental stressors like pollution, habitat loss and recurring algae blooms. This reduced complexity could mean fewer interactions between species and a less resilient ecosystem overall.

“The Indian River Lagoon is mostly surrounded by suburban development, but our parasite findings suggest its food web looks more like those found in heavily urbanized areas,” said Christopher Moore, Ph.D., senior author and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Florida, who conducted the study as a postdoctoral fellow at FAU Harbor Branch. “Water quality problems and patchy seagrass cover likely limit how freely host species can move, which in turn reduces parasite presence and signals a simpler, more fragile ecosystem. As restoration continues, our parasite data can serve as a useful baseline to track how the lagoon’s food web recovers after years of nutrient pollution and habitat decline.”

From October 2022 to October 2023, researchers sampled six sites in the central and southern IRL, focusing on areas where seagrass was starting to regrow after a 2019 algae bloom die-off. They collected and dissected fish and crustaceans, recording parasites with complex life cycles – like nematodes, tapeworms, flukes and parasitic isopods. They used both visual ID and DNA barcoding to identify the parasites, and compared their results with other studies to see how the IRL measures up in terms of parasite presence and abundance. 

Crustaceans and fish in the IRL had lower parasite infection rates than similar species in other ecosystems – 11% lower in crustaceans and 8% lower in fish. Fewer parasites also used these animals as final hosts – 5% less for crustaceans and 11% less for fish. While small intertidal fish typically host more parasites than crustaceans in other systems, the IRL showed no such difference. Overall, parasite prevalence in the IRL was 34% lower, with the biggest decline in digenetic trematodes (15%), isopods (20%) and nematodes (9%).

“These results highlight a striking shift in the ecological health of the Indian River Lagoon,” said Michael McCoy, Ph.D., co-author and a professor at FAU’s Harbor Branch and Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. “The significantly lower parasite prevalence – especially among trematodes, isopods and nematodes – suggests a disruption in the biodiversity needed to support the parasites’ complex life cycles. Parasites are often invisible indicators of ecosystem integrity, and here, their scarcity is telling us something important.”

Parasites with identifiable larval stages, like tapeworms (cestodes), thorny-headed worms (acantocephalans) and flukes (trematodes), were also much less common than expected. No larval tapeworms or acanthocephalans were found in the crabs, suggesting these complex parasites are largely absent in the lagoon. Though only crabs were studied, this points to a general lack of these parasites in the area.

“Just like Washington state’s Puget Sound – a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins – our parasite data suggest that food webs in the Indian River Lagoon are being disrupted, largely due to seagrass loss,” said Moore. “These disruptions have led to declines in meso-predators like sea trout, whose numbers dropped sharply after harmful algal blooms first appeared in 2011. These blooms, driven by excess nutrients, damage seagrass habitats and upset the balance of predators and prey in the ecosystem.”

Study co-author is Krista McCoy, Ph.D., director of research and conservation at the Florida Oceanographic Society.  

This research was supported by the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute Specialty License Plate fund (PWD #AWD-002997).

- FAU -

Christopher Moore, Ph.D., senior author, holding a giant oyster toadfish, a species of fish they routinely examined for parasites.

Christopher Moore, Ph.D., senior author, retrieving samples for the research.

Christopher Moore, Ph.D., senior author, retrieving samples for the research.

Credit

Brianna Davis

About Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute:
Founded in 1971, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University is a research community of marine scientists, engineers, educators, and other professionals focused on Ocean Science for a Better World. The institute drives innovation in ocean engineering, at-sea operations, drug discovery and biotechnology from the oceans, coastal ecology and conservation, marine mammal research and conservation, aquaculture, ocean observing systems and marine education. For more information, visit www.fau.edu/hboi.

 

About Florida Atlantic University:
Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, Florida Atlantic serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students across six campuses located along the Southeast Florida coast. In recent years, the University has doubled its research expenditures and outpaced its peers in student achievement rates. Through the coexistence of access and excellence, Florida Atlantic embodies an innovative model where traditional achievement gaps vanish. Florida Atlantic is designated as a Hispanic-serving institution, ranked as a top public university by U.S. News & World Report, and holds the designation of “R1: Very High Research Spending and Doctorate Production” by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Florida Atlantic shares this status with less than 5% of the nearly 4,000 universities in the United States. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.

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Journal

Estuaries and Coasts

DOI

10.1007/s12237-025-01531-2 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Parasites of Crustaceans and Fishes in the Indian River Lagoon, Florida: A Meta-Analysis Across Intertidal Systems and Taxa

 

New roadmap advances catalytic solutions to destroy ‘forever chemicals’

Rice University

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Michael Wong, chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice.

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Credit: Rice University.

A team of researchers from Rice University, Carnegie Mellon University and other leading global institutions has outlined a bold new roadmap for harnessing heterogeneous catalysis to destroy per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), the so-called “forever chemicals” that have contaminated water supplies worldwide.

In a study published in Nature Water, the international team of environmental engineers, chemists and catalysis experts assessed current catalytic technologies for PFAS destruction, proposed a suite of innovations to overcome existing limitations and emphasized the urgent need for holistic performance metrics that reflect true environmental and public health benefits.

“Catalysis offers a promising path to completely break down PFAS molecules, but current approaches are still far from optimal,” said Michael Wong, co-author and chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice. “We need smarter design, better process integration and a more nuanced way of comparing technologies that accounts for energy, cost and toxicity reduction.”

PFAS are synthetic compounds used in products from firefighting foams to cookware and personal care products. Their carbon-fluorine bonds are among the strongest in chemistry, making them extremely persistent in the environment and difficult to degrade. Conventional water treatments such as reverse osmosis and activated carbon filters only separate PFAS from water, meaning toxic waste is left behind.

“Heterogeneous catalysis — the use of solid materials to speed up chemical reactions — has the potential to not only separate but actually mineralize PFAS into harmless by-products,” said Gregory Lowry, corresponding author and a Hamerschlag University Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon. “But these systems face multiple hurdles, including poor selectivity, incomplete defluorination and high energy demands.”

One of the team’s key recommendations is a pretreatment step to simplify the complex soup of PFAS often found in industrial waste or contaminated groundwater. Using known homogeneous chemical reactions, they postulate that these mixtures can be transformed into a smaller set of better-understood compounds, paving the way for more effective catalytic destruction.

“Thinking of complex PFAS treatment as a multistep process that will require many steps makes catalyst design much more tractable,” said Sarah Glass, co-first author and graduate student in civil and environmental engineering at Rice. “Designing and using treatment techniques that are really efficient for a certain step of degradation can improve overall efficiency and accelerate the development of real-world catalytic solutions.”

The researchers proposed a sequential “treatment train,” where simplified PFAS mixtures are processed through tailored catalytic steps. First, the process removes specific chemical head groups from the PFAS molecules. Next, it shortens their long perfluorinated carbon chains, stripping away the fluorine atoms — the key to their persistence. Finally, the remaining fluorinated fragments are broken down into safe, naturally occurring substances like carbon dioxide, water and fluoride ions. Each step uses a specialized catalyst tailored to the chemical structure at that stage. For example, titanium-based materials are used to speed up oxidation, while palladium helps swap out fluorine atoms for hydrogen in a process called reductive hydrodefluorination. This approach ensures that even complex PFAS mixtures can be effectively destroyed rather than just absorbed onto a solid, requiring additional treatment.

“Think of it as a relay race,” said Thomas Senftle, co-author and the William Marsh Rice Trustee Associate Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice. “Each catalyst hands off a partially degraded PFAS to the next until the molecule is completely broken down. Our goal is total defluorination.”

The researchers stressed the importance of creating catalysts that can target and break down PFAS without being distracted by other substances commonly found in contaminated water. To do this, they are exploring catalyst surfaces that better attract PFAS and are using computer models and machine learning to predict reactions and optimize catalyst design.

“We’re still learning which PFAS break down under which conditions,” said Pedro Alvarez, co-author, the George R. Brown Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and director of the Rice Water Technologies Entrepreneurship and Research Institute. “Data-driven simulations can dramatically speed up the discovery process.”

The team also introduced a new energy metric called electrical energy per order of defluorination (EEOD) to fairly compare how efficiently different catalytic systems break fluorine-carbon bonds. Unlike traditional removal metrics, EEOD focuses on true degradation, not just separation.

The study concludes with a call for interdisciplinary collaboration and open data sharing to refine PFAS treatment strategies, with the need for scalable, cost-effective destruction methods greater than ever.

“PFAS are a generational challenge,” Wong said. “We owe it to future generations to find smart, sustainable solutions, and catalysis can be one of them.”

This research was supported by funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, a Dean’s Fellowship from the College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

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Journal

Nature Water

DOI

10.1038/s44221-025-00433-8 

Article Title

Merits, limitations and innovation priorities for heterogeneous catalytic platforms to destroy PFAS

Article Publication Date

7-May-2025

 

Junk food for thought: Landmark Canadian study directly links ultra-processed foods to poor health

McMaster University

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Study authors Angelina Baric and ASnthea Christoforou, Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University, found ultra-processed foods are directly and significantly to poor health outcomes.

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Credit: McMaster University

A landmark study exploring Canadians’ consumption of chips, frozen pizzas, breakfast cereals and other ultra-processed foods typically loaded with fat, sugar and additives has confirmed these foods are directly and significantly linked to poor health outcomes. 

Researchers at McMaster University investigated the relationship between ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption and risk factors including blood pressure, cholesterol levels (LDL and HDL), waist circumference and body mass index (BMI).   

Their study is the first in Canada to leverage population-based and robust biomarker data to examine this relationship.  

The team analyzed data from more than 6,000 adults across Canada, representing a diverse range of ages, health conditions and socio-economic backgrounds. The subjects completed a questionnaire for the Canadian Health Measures Survey, conducted by Health Canada and Statistics Canada, and were then personally assessed at mobile clinics.  

Individuals who consumed the most UPF were more likely to be men, and to have lower income levels, less education and to have reported lower fruit and vegetable intake. They had significantly higher BMI, waist circumference, blood pressure, insulin, and triglyceride levels than those who consumed the least UPF. 

Researchers noted that many links between UPF consumption and cardiometabolic risk factors remained significant even after adjusting for BMI, suggesting that ultra-processed foods may influence health through mechanisms beyond weight gain, such as inflammation, insulin resistance, and poor metabolic regulation – all well-established predictors of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. 

The associations persisted even after adjusting for physical activity, smoking, the total amount of food consumed and socioeconomic factors including income and education. 

“We have this very complex food supply that is more than just the nutritional composition of a food,” explains Anthea Christoforou, an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University and senior author of the paper.  

“It may be about the additives. The way the food is prepared. It's related to the packaging and the marketing of that food. All these things come together to create this food environment that really affects the healthfulness of our diets.” 

The study, published today in the journal of Nutrition and Metabolism, uncovered a strong association between UPF consumption and the presence of C-reactive protein (CRP), which the liver produces in response to inflammation, as well as an increase of white blood cells. 

“These two biomarkers indicate that these foods are causing an inflammatory response in our bodies. In a sense, this suggests that our bodies are seeing these as non-foods, as some kind of other element,” says Christoforou. 

UPFs are ready-to-eat, pre-packaged foods, often high in sodium, sugar and unhealthy fats, while being low in fibre, minerals and vitamins. They are often more convenient, heavily marketed, and appeal to time-pressed consumers, factors that may contribute to higher consumption among lower-income groups and growing health disparities. 

Researchers point out that such foods have come to dominate the global food supply, particularly in middle- and high-income countries. Canadian study participants consumed an average of more than three servings of UPFs per day, but those who consumed the highest amounts averaged six servings daily, and researchers believe UPFs may be replacing healthier foods such as fruits and vegetables.   

"Ultra-processed foods are impacting health across all socioeconomic groups," says Angelina Baric, a graduate student in the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster and co-author of the study. "While some populations are more exposed to these foods, our findings show that the health risks persist independently of income and education. This highlights the need for broad, equitable food policies that protect everyone." 

Health Canada currently recommends reducing the consumption of processed foods as part of its healthy eating guidelines and has begun consultations to develop broader strategies for limiting UPFs in the Canadian food supply. 

“We found consistent evidence that eating ultra-processed foods is associated with cardiometabolic risk factors, which not only reinforces the evidence we have seen linking these foods with rising overweight and obesity rates in Canada and other parts of the world, but also provides more detailed information about what’s happening in the body before a full disease,” says Baric. 

In future, the research team plans to develop a study on children’s eating habits as related to processed foods, and female health, focusing on fertility, menses and the onset of menopause.  

They are also investigating the biological mechanisms by which UPFs may trigger inflammation and metabolic dysfunction and exploring the role of affordability and food environments in driving UPF consumption — with the aim of informing more equitable public health strategies. 

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Journal

Nutrition and Metabolism

DOI

10.1186/s12986-025-00935-y 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Ultra-processed food consumption and cardiometabolic risk in Canada: a cross-sectional analysis of the Canadian Health Measures Survey

Article Publication Date

6-May-2025

COI Statement

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and analysis were performed by AB and AC. AB wrote the first draft of the manuscript with input from AC and VSM. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. AC supervised the project. Corresponding author: Angelina Baric, barica1@mcmaster.ca

Eating ultra processed foods may speed up early signs of Parkinson's disease

American Academy of Neurology

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MINNEAPOLIS — People who eat more ultra processed foods like cold breakfast cereal, cookies and hot dogs are more likely to have early signs of Parkinson’s disease when compared to those who eat very few ultra processed foods, according to a study published in the May 7, 2025, online in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study does not prove that eating more ultra processed foods causes early signs of Parkinson’s disease; it only shows an association.

Researchers looked for signs of prodromal Parkinson’s disease, which is the earliest stage, when neurodegeneration begins, but more characteristic symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, like tremors, balance problems and slow movement, have not yet begun. These early symptoms can begin years or even decades before the typical symptoms start.

“Eating a healthy diet is crucial as it has been associated with a lower risk of neurodegenerative diseases and the dietary choices we make today can significantly influence our brain health in the future,” said study author Xiang Gao, MD, PhD, of Institute of Nutrition, Fudan University in Shanghai, China. “There's growing evidence that diet might influence the development of Parkinson's disease. Our research shows that eating too much processed food, like sugary sodas and packaged snacks, might be speeding up early signs of Parkinson's disease.”

The study included 42,853 people with an average age of 48 who did not have Parkinson’s disease at the start of the study. They were followed up to 26 years.

Participants had regular medical exams and completed health questionnaires. Researchers reviewed results to determine if they had early signs of Parkinson’s disease, including rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, constipation, depressive symptoms, body pain, impaired color vision, excessive daytime sleepiness and reduced ability to smell.

Participants completed a food diary every two to four years, listing what they ate and how often.

Researchers looked at several types of ultra processed foods including sauces, spreads, or condiments; packaged sweets; snacks or desserts; artificially or sugar-sweetened beverages; animal-based products; yogurt or dairy-based desserts; and packaged savory snacks. One serving was equivalent to a single can of soda, one ounce of potato chips, one slice of packaged cake, a single hot dog or one tablespoon of ketchup.

Researchers calculated how many ultra processed foods participants ate on average per day.

They divided participants into five groups. The highest group ate 11 or more servings of ultra-processed food per day on average. The lowest group ate an average of fewer than three servings per day.

After adjusting for factors such as age, physical activity and smoking, researchers found that participants who ate 11 or more servings of ultra processed foods per day had a 2.5-fold higher likelihood of having three or more early signs of Parkinson’s disease compared to those consuming fewer than three servings per day.

When looking at individual early signs of Parkinson’s disease, researchers also found that eating more ultra processed foods was tied to an increased risk for nearly all symptoms except constipation.

“Choosing to eat fewer processed foods and more whole, nutritious foods could be a good strategy for maintaining brain health,” said Gao. “More studies are needed to confirm our finding that eating less processed food may slow down the earliest signs of Parkinson's disease.”

A limitation of the study was that the amount of ultra processed food consumed was self-reported, so participants may not have remembered accurately how much and what specific foods they ate.

The study was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the municipal public health system in Shanghai, China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation.

Discover more about Parkinson’s disease at BrainandLife.org, from the American Academy of Neurology. This resource also offers a magazine, podcast, and books that connect patients, caregivers and anyone interested in brain health with the most trusted information, straight from the world’s leading experts in brain health. Follow Brain & Life® on Facebook, X, and Instagram.

The American Academy of Neurology is the leading voice in brain health. As the world’s largest association of neurologists and neuroscience professionals with more than 40,000 members, the AAN provides access to the latest news, science and research affecting neurology for patients, caregivers, physicians and professionals alike. The AAN’s mission is to enhance member career fulfillment and promote brain health for all. A neurologist is a doctor who specializes in the diagnosis, care and treatment of brain, spinal cord and nervous system diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, stroke, concussion, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, headache and migraine.

Explore the latest in neurological disease and brain health, from the minds at the AAN at AAN.com or find us on Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

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Journal

Neurology