Cross-Site: Saurian Malaria: A Long-Term Study

Boreas BSR Ballston BioScience BioInformation Bitnet CEAS cenr COI COV CRB Christensen Clement Clementsian COI Collins Curtis DCA DD DDD DEB DEB‘s DGC Delmarva Detling Detling Dentrous Droflila Dulles EROC Edwards Erad9527115 Schall这个项目将继续对蜥蜴的疟疾寄生虫进行长期的生态学研究。将使用三个地点：(1)加利福尼亚州北部的Hopland野战站，对蜥蜴疟疾的现场和实验室研究已经进行了17年；(2)波多黎各的Luquillo LTER站点，收集了初步数据；(3)加勒比海东部的萨巴岛，最近在那里进行了其他调查。该项目的总体目标是至少在未来十年内继续在这三个地点进行研究。这项研究将调查三种疟疾寄生虫在蜥蜴宿主中的分布、丰度、性别比例和种间相互作用。一种疟疾感染了加利福尼亚州西部的栅栏蜥蜴。这个物种的生态可能是所有非人类疟疾中最知名的。另外两种疟疾物种共存于加勒比海。随着生态和进化时间的推移，寄生虫的丰度、性别比例和种间关联都会相互作用。这些长期研究将为理解这一宿主-寄生虫系统提供必要的基线数据。将解决三个问题。首先，将随着时间的推移跟踪寄生虫的分布和丰度，并在不同地点进行比较。我们将用这些数据来探索寄生虫流行的经典和最新模型。其次，最近关于疟疾配子体性别比例的理论将通过利用热带和温带地区不同的流行率水平以及寄生虫流行率随时间的变化来检验。第三，将探索两个热带地点共存的两种疟疾寄生虫的种间相互作用，特别是促进作用。两种寄生虫的相对和绝对丰度会影响蜥蜴之间的相互作用。疟疾寄生虫是一个多样化、地理分布广泛的群体。它们对包括种群生物学在内的人类生物学的重要性是有据可查的。对蜥蜴疟疾的研究现在表明，疟原虫对非人类宿主也可能具有核心重要性，包括对人口甚至社区层面的影响。加勒比海岛屿上的Anolis蜥蜴数量极其丰富，它们以昆虫为食，影响着整个生物环境。因此，蜥蜴疟疾可以作为研究宿主-寄生虫生态及其对生物群其他方面影响的模式系统。

BOREAS BSR Ballston BioScience Bioinformatics Bitnet CEAS CENR COI COV CRB Christensen Clements Clementsian CoI Collins Curtis DCA DD DDD DEB DEB's DGC Delmarva Detling Detrended Dioecious Drosophila Dulles EROC Edwards Erag9527115 Schall This project will continue long-term ecological studies on the malarial parasites of lizards. Three sites will be used: (1) the Hopland Field Station in northern California where field and laboratory studies on lizard malaria have been underway for 17 years, (2) the Luquillo LTER site in Puerto Rico where preliminary data were gathered, and (3) the eastern Caribbean island of Saba where other recent surveys have been conducted. The broad goal of this project is to continue studies at all three sites for at least the next decade. The research will examine the distribution, abundance, sex ratio, and interspecific interactions in three species of malarial parasites in lizard hosts. One species of malaria infects the western fence lizard in California. The ecology of this species is perhaps the best known of any non-human malaria. Two other malaria species coexist in the Caribbean. Parasite abundance, sex ratio, and interspecific associations all interact over ecological and evolutionary time. These long-term studies will provide the necessary base-line data for understanding this host-p arasite system. Three issues will be addressed. First, the distribution and abundance of the parasites will be followed over time and compared among sites. Classical and recent models of parasite prevalence will be explored with these data. Second, recent theory on sex ratios of malarial gametocytes will be tested by taking advantage of the different levels of prevalence at the tropical and temperate sites and as parasite prevalence changes over time. Third, interspecific interaction, especially facilitation, will be explored for the two coexisting species of malarial parasites at the two tropical sites. The relative and absolute abundances of the two parasites could effect interactions between the lizards. Malarial parasites are a diverse, geographically widespread group. Their importance to the biology, including population biology, of humans is well documented. Studies on lizard malaria now suggest that Plasmodium can be of central importance to non-human hosts as well, including population and even community-level effects. The Anolis lizards of Caribbean islands are extremely abundant and influence the entire biotic environment because of their diet of insects. Thus, lizard malaria can stand as a model system to study host-parasite ecology and its impacts on other aspects of the biota.