Collaborative Research: Community Ecology as a Framework for Understanding Disease Dynamics

合作研究：群落生态学作为理解疾病动态的框架

• 批准号: 0809487
• 负责人: Jason Rohr
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of South Florida
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-09-01 至 2009-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0809487&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Community; Ecology; Framework

Despite parasites being found in nearly every community, the relationship between community and disease ecology remains poorly understood. Our goal is to determine the mechanisms by which species interactions and common environmental stressors influence disease properties and community dynamics. Our focal hosts are amphibians, a group of global conservation concern that has been impacted by the recent emergence of infectious diseases. The focal parasites are the trematodes (flatworms) Ribeiroia ondatrae and Echinostoma trivolvis. They are transmitted from snails to amphibians and induce mortality associated with limb deformities and kidney damage, respectively. Our hypothesis is that trematode transmission, associated mortality, and amphibian fitness will depend upon community composition and abiotic stressors. We will conduct surveys to identify relationships among amphibian trematode infections and biotic and abiotic characteristics of wetlands and their surrounding landscape. We will use mesocosm communities to examine how the independent and combined effects of competition and predation (biotic stressors) and pesticides and conditions associated with climate change (abiotic stressors) influence amphibian fitness and disease properties. Additionally, we will elucidate the relationships among amphibian immune responses and biotic and abiotic stressors and infection risk by conducting immunological assays on amphibians from each of our experiments. Finally, we will formulate predictive mathematical models for the spread of trematodes in human-altered environments. This project represents a pioneering effort in the integration of community ecology, immunology, and epidemiology that will improve our ability to forecast future vector-borne disease outbreaks by shedding light on general principles governing host-parasite interactions.

尽管在几乎每个社区中都发现了寄生虫，但社区与疾病生态之间的关系仍然知之甚少。 我们的目标是确定物种相互作用和共同环境压力源影响疾病特性和社区动态的机制。 我们的焦点是两栖动物，这是一群全球保护关注的关注，这受到了最近出现的传染病的影响。 局灶性寄生虫是trematodes（lut虫）ribeiroia ondatrae和echinostoma trivolvis。 它们分别从蜗牛传播到两栖动物，并诱导与肢体畸形和肾脏损伤相关的死亡率。 我们的假设是，Trematode的传播，相关的死亡率和两栖动物的适应性将取决于社区组成和非生物压力源。 我们将进行调查，以确定两栖动物爆发感染以及湿地及其周围景观的生物和非生物特征之间的关系。 我们将使用中库社区研究竞争和捕食（生物应激源）以及与气候变化（非生物压力源）相关的农药和条件的独立和综合作用如何影响两栖动物的适应性和疾病特性。 此外，我们将通过对我们每个实验的两栖动物进行免疫学测定，从而阐明两栖动物免疫反应与生物和非生物压力源以及感染风险之间的关系。 最后，我们将制定预测性数学模型，以在人类改变的环境中传播。 该项目代表了社区生态，免疫学和流行病学整合的开创性努力，该努力将通过阐明有关宿主 - 寄生虫相互作用的一般原则来提高我们预测未来媒介传播疾病爆发的能力。