EAGER: Blood Parasite Infections in Fishes and Their Transmission by Gnathiid Isopods on Caribbean Coral Reefs.

海洋覆盖了地球的大部分，并容纳了地球的大部分。海洋生态系统的生物量和多样性，包括在所谓的“海洋雨林”中发现的生物量和多样性，珊瑚礁，比任何其他生态系统都支持更多的物种。目前对珊瑚礁系统疾病的研究主要集中在珊瑚和海绵，珊瑚礁的主要无脊椎动物建筑师，以及这些疾病如何导致这些生物的发病率和死亡率，从而导致社区结构的重大变化。 然而，据估计，珊瑚礁上80%的生物是寄生虫，像陆地系统一样，包括许多节肢动物。动物寄生虫和疾病的研究历史上一直是病理学家，兽医科学家和畜牧专业人士的领域，同时吸引了一些进化生物学家的注意。鉴于寄生是最常见的动物生活方式，许多疾病都是由寄生虫引起或传播的，因此令人惊讶的是，历史上很少有生态学家和环境生物学家解决这些问题之间的联系。 然而，近年来，人们对生态学和疾病生物学之间的界面产生了相当大的兴趣：了解生物和非生物环境因素与疾病及其载体动态之间的联系。因此，特别需要对海洋系统进行研究，以全面和平衡地了解疾病的生态学。 可以说，其中最重要的生态是颚类等足类动物。底栖浮游动物群落的常见成员，它们是珊瑚鱼的主要体外寄生虫和清洁生物的主要食物。与它们的陆地吸血对应物一样（例如，蜱和蚊子），它们已被证明将原生动物寄生虫传播给鱼类宿主。该项目的最终目标是了解珊瑚礁底栖生物群落结构和宿主密度的变化对体外寄生颚类等足类动物丰度的影响、颚类动物感染鱼类宿主的人均风险以及加勒比地区原生动物和鱼类宿主其他疾病的流行情况。主要研究人员建议确定血吸虫原生动物的加勒比宿主范围，并测试加勒比颌类等足类动物也传播它们的重要假设。更广泛的影响：这项研究将支持本科生和本科生以及他们在多个机构，包括阿肯色州州立大学-琼斯博罗，维尔京群岛大学和波多黎各大学的互动。它将进一步建立与当地美属维尔京群岛和波多黎各资源管理人员和K-12学校的现有关系，并将为当地经济做出贡献。最后，它将促进与南非和联合王国科学家的合作。

The ocean covers most of the planet and harbors most of the Earth?s biomass and diversity, including that found within the so-called 'rainforests of the sea', coral reefs, that supports more species per area than any other ecological system. Current research on diseases in coral reef systems focuses primarily on corals and sponges, the major invertebrate architects of reefs, and how these diseases contribute to morbidity and mortality of such organisms, causes that in turn result in major shifts in community structure. Yet an estimated 80% of the organisms on coral reefs are parasites, which, like terrestrial systems, include many arthropods. The study of animal parasites and diseases has historically been the realm of pathologists, veterinary scientists, and animal husbandry professionals, while at the same time attracting the attention of some evolutionary biologists. Given that parasitism is the most common animal lifestyle and that many diseases are either caused or transmitted by parasites, it is therefore surprising that, historically, few ecologists and environmental biologists have addressed the links among such. However, there has been considerable interest in recent years in the interface between ecology and disease biology: understanding the link between biotic and abiotic environmental factors and the dynamics of diseases and their vectors. Thus, research in marine systems is particularly needed to achieve a comprehensive and balanced understanding of the ecology of diseases. Arguably the most ecologically important among these are gnathiid isopods. Common members of the benthic zooplankton community, they are the major ectoparasite of reef fishes and main food item for cleaner organisms. As with their terrestrial blood-feeding counterparts (e.g., ticks and mosquitoes), they have been shown to transmit protozoan parasites to fish hosts. The ultimate goal of this project is to understand the effects of changes in benthic community structure of coral reefs and host density on the abundance of ectoparasitic gnathiid isopods, the per capita risk of infestation of gnathiids on fish hosts, and the prevalence of protozoan and other diseases of fish hosts in the Caribbean. The principal investigators propose to determine the range of Caribbean hosts for haemogregarine protozoans and test the important assumption that Caribbean gnathiid isopods also transmit them. Broader Impacts: This research will support undergraduate and undergraduate students and their interactions within multiple institutions, including Arkansas State University-Jonesboro, University of the Virgin Islands, and University of Puerto Rico. It will further build on existing relationships with local US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico resource managers and K-12 schools and will contribute to their local economies. Finally, it will foster collaboration with scientists in South Africa and the United Kingdom.