Anthropogenic Effects on Host-Trematode Dynamics

疾病以各种方式与环境相互作用。对于生命周期复杂的疾病尤其如此。对具有复杂生命周期的寄生虫与人为的环境变化相互作用的基本了解将有助于我们预测此类疾病的未来变化。这个项目将利用各种实验、观察和理论方法，全面和综合地了解人为环境变化、寄生虫群落之间的相互作用，以及这些变化对宿主群落的影响程度。盐沼是一个有用的模式生态系统，可以解决疾病的作用，因为这些湿地受到广泛的人为影响，并支持不同的吸虫寄生虫群落。可能影响寄生虫群落的变化的例子包括生物多样性的损失、污染、引入的物种和气候变化。这些影响对所有疾病的影响不太可能是相同的。由于一些寄生虫病可以改变它们感染的宿主群落(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)，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.