Anthropogenic Effects on Host-Trematode Dynamics

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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.