Here is her title and abstract:
Diversity and disease: how do changes in pathogen communities influence disease risk for amphibians?
Growing evidence suggests that diverse ecosystems provide a biological 鈥渂uffer鈥� from certain human and wildlife diseases, and understanding the underlying mechanisms is essential to predicting the impact of emerging diseases.聽 Wetland ecosystems provide an ideal study system for investigating the multifaceted relationship between biodiversity and disease.聽 I propose to study the relationship between host diversity, parasite diversity, and disease risk for amphibians in freshwater ecosystems through a combination of a broad field survey and a mesocosm experiment.聽 The overarching question of my proposal is: How do changes in biodiversity, caused by land use change, affect the diversity of trematode parasites and disease risk for amphibians?聽 I predict that decreasing biodiversity of hosts will translate into decreased trematode parasite diversity and higher disease risks for amphibians.聽 I will sample 60 ponds over two years across a gradient of land use and biodiversity in three California counties (Santa Clara, Alameda, and Contra Costa) to determine the diversity at three component community trophic levels: trematode parasites, aquatic snails, and amphibians.聽 To explicitly test the mechanism(s) linking parasite biodiversity and disease in amphibians, I also propose to conduct a mesocosm experiment manipulating the levels of parasite diversity (low, medium, and high diversity).
Congratulations, Katie!
