Sea Star Wasting Syndrome Modeling: Cox Proportional Hazards Data and Code

Sea Star Wasting Syndrome (SSWS) has been ongoing in echinoderm species of the North American Pacific Coast. Previous outbreaks, as well as the most recent one, have reduced sea 21 star populations to near-absence in many locations. To identify potential factors correlated with SSWS appearance, we combined intertidal surveys, citizen scientist disease observations, and environmental data. I modeled relationships between environmental variables and the risk of a site's transition from healthy to infected using a Cox Proportional Hazards Model. More information at www.seastarwasting.org. Sea star observations can be viewed interactively at data.piscoweb.org/marine1/seastardisease.html.If using any of these sea star observations or datasets, please acknowledge the Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network (MARINe) and the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO).This code was written as part of the doctoral thesis of Monica Moritsch: Moritsch, M. (2018). Ecological causes and consequences of Sea Star Wasting Syndrome on the Pacific coast. UC Santa Cruz. ProQuest ID: Moritsch_ucsc_0036E_11614. Merritt ID: ark:/13030/m5x39vdx. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9dr8t5kq

海星丧失综合征（Sea Star Wasting Syndrome, SSWS）长期在北美太平洋沿岸的棘皮动物类群中持续流行。此前多轮暴发以及本次最新疫情，已使诸多区域的海星种群锐减至近乎绝迹。为探明与SSWS暴发相关的潜在影响因子，本研究整合了潮间带实地调查、公民科学家提交的病害观测数据与环境监测数据。研究采用Cox比例风险模型（Cox Proportional Hazards Model），构建了环境变量与研究样地从健康状态转为感染状态的风险之间的关联模型。
更多相关信息可访问官网www.seastarwasting.org。海星观测数据可通过交互式页面data.piscoweb.org/marine1/seastardisease.html进行查看。若使用本研究涉及的海星观测数据或数据集，请致谢多机构岩潮网络（Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network, MARINe）与沿岸海洋跨学科研究伙伴关系（Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans, PISCO）。
本代码为Monica Moritsch博士论文的衍生成果：Moritsch, M. (2018). 《太平洋沿岸海星丧失综合征的生态成因与影响》，加州大学圣克鲁兹分校。ProQuest编号：Moritsch_ucsc_0036E_11614；Merritt编号：ark:/13030/m5x39vdx。相关资源可从https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9dr8t5kq 获取。