Anthropogenic Effects on Host-Trematode Dynamics

疾病以多种方式与环境相互作用。对于具有复杂生命周期的疾病尤其如此。对具有复杂生命周期的寄生虫与人为环境变化相互作用方式的基本了解，将有助于我们预测这类疾病未来的变化。该项目将采用各种实验、观察和理论方法，全面综合地了解人为环境变化与寄生虫群落之间的相互作用，以及这些变化对寄主群落的影响程度。盐沼是解决疾病作用的一个有用的模式生态系统，因为这些湿地受到广泛的人为影响，并支持多种吸虫寄生虫群落。可能影响寄生虫群落的变化包括生物多样性丧失、污染、引进物种和气候变化。这些影响对所有疾病的影响可能不尽相同。由于某些寄生虫病可以改变其感染的宿主群落（例如通过改变生态系统中的能量流动或通过改变捕食者-猎物关系），因此在环境、疾病和生态系统的变化之间可能存在复杂的反馈。

Disease interacts with the environment in a variety of ways. This is particularly true for diseases with complex life cycles. A basic understanding of the way that parasites with complex life cycles interact with man-made changes to the environment will help us anticipate future changes in such diseases. This project will use a variety of experimental, observational and theoretical approaches to develop a comprehensive and synthetic understanding of the interactions between man-made environmental change, parasite communities, and the extent to which these changes affect host communities.Salt marshes are a useful model ecosystem to address the role of diseases since these wetlands are subject to a wide range of man-made impacts and support a diverse community of trematode worm parasites. Examples of changes that can affect parasite communities include losses to biodiversity, pollution, introduced species and climate change. The effects of these impacts are not likely to be the same for all diseases. Because some parasitic diseases can alter the community of hosts that they infect (such as by altering the flow of energy through an ecosystem or by changing predator-prey relationships) there may be complex feedback between changes in the environment, diseases and ecosystems.