DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Disease, Genetic Bottlenecks and the Evolution of Immune Response in Island Avifauna

长期与世隔绝的岛屿物种可能特别容易受到病原体的影响，这是由于疾病贫困环境中的长期进化历史和历史上低种群规模的遗传后果的共同影响。除了夏威夷，人们对疾病对太平洋其他孤立群岛上的鸟类的威胁程度知之甚少。该项目将采用一个比较框架(大陆与岛屿)，研究几个影响南太平洋本地鸟类相对于非本地引进物种的疾病易感性的因素，这些非本地引进物种被推定为对疾病具有相对抵抗力。这项项目对评估几个太平洋岛屿的病原体流行情况，以及确定某些受威胁物种可以应对当前和未来疾病威胁的遗传变异，将具有直接的保育价值。如果禽类病原体在偏远的南太平洋岛屿上没有大陆那么常见，那么拟议的系统也提供了一个独特的机会，让我们了解病原体如何通过要求免疫投资来限制鸟类的生活史。该项目的结果将提供一个重要的基线，用来比较未来的寄生虫调查，并将为研究充分的夏威夷疾病系统提供背景：夏威夷是独一无二的，还是它是一个更大的太平洋系统的一部分，在这个系统中，寄生虫的引入可能会造成灾难性的后果？

Long-isolated island species may be unusually susceptible to pathogens due to the combined influences of a long history of evolution in a disease-impoverished environment and the genetic consequences of historically low population sizes. Except in Hawaii, little is known about the extent to which disease threatens avifauna on other isolated archipelagoes of the Pacific. The proposed project will employ a comparative framework (mainland vs. island) to examine several factors influencing disease susceptibility in a group of native South Pacific birds relative to non-native introduced species, which are presumed to be relatively resistant to disease.This project will be of immediate conservation value in its assessment of pathogen prevalence in several Pacific islands and in characterizing the genetic variation with which certain threatened species can respond to current and future disease threats. If avian pathogens are less common on remote South Pacific islands than on the mainland, then the proposed system also provides a unique opportunity to understand how pathogens may constrain avian life history through their demands on immune investment. Results from this project will provide an important baseline with which to compare future parasite surveys and will lend context to the well-studied Hawaiian disease system: is Hawaii unique, or is it part of a larger Pacific system in which the introduction of parasites could have disastrous consequences?