Dissertation Research: Virus Infection in Field Populations of a Terrestrial Isopod

生态学领域的主要目标之一是了解生物和非生物力量决定生物体丰度和分布的机制。虽然以前的研究已经检查了各种遗传和环境因素，使个体宿主易受寄生虫感染，但很少有人试图了解自然栖息地中宿主的种群水平特征如何影响它们对寄生虫的易感性。拟议的研究将通过实验研究陆地等足类动物种群的特征如何影响它们对致命病毒的易感性。在自然栖息地进行的实验将检验等足类动物的密度和营养状况与栖息地的物理特征之间的相互作用，而这些特征反过来又影响它们的聚集和运动模式。目前关于宿主和寄生虫种群动态的理论模型表明，将宿主种群分裂成更小的群体可能对确定病毒通过宿主种群传播的速率非常重要。近年来，病毒已成为重要的生物防治手段，其潜力尚未充分发挥。了解决定给定控制药剂有效性的因素对于确保该药剂的成功非常重要，这项研究可能会增加我们对控制药剂如何以及何时应用最有效的理解。此外，由于等足类动物在它们的觅食栖息地中非常普遍，并且可以分散到很远的地方，就它们传播基因工程微生物的能力而言，它们可能是最重要的土壤生物之一。随着转基因生物使用的增加，必须更加注意这些微生物被等足类动物和其他土壤生物群分散的程度。

One of the major objectives of the field of ecology is understanding the mechanisms by which biotic and abiotic forces determine the abundance and distribution of organisms. Although previous studies have examined various genetic and enviromental factors that predispose individual host organisms to infection by parasites, few attempts have been made to understand how population level characteristics of the host affect their susceptibility to parasites in natural habitats. The proposed research will experimentally examine the ways in which characteristics of terrestrial isopod populations affect their susceptibility to a lethal virus. Experiments in natural habitats will examine the interaction of isopod density and nutritional state with physical characteristics of the habitat which in turn affect their patterns of aggregation and movement. Current theoretical models of host and parasite population dynamics suggest that fragmentation of a host population into smaller groups may be very important in determining the rates of transmission of viruses through the host population. Viruses have become important biological control agents in recent years and their full potential has yet to be realized. Understanding the factors that determine the effectiveness of a given control agent is important to ensure the success of that agent, and this study may increase our understanding of how and when applications of control agents will be most effective. Also, since isopods are very general in their feeding habitats and can disperse over significant distances, they are likely to be one of the most important soil organisms in terms of their ability to disperse genetically engineered microbes. As the use of genetically engineered organisms increases, more attention must be paid to the degree to which these microbes are dispersed by isopods and other soil biota.