OPUS: Intrinsic Dynamics of the Regional Community

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This research seeks to determine how three types of factors -- climate, competitors, and disease -- influence where animals are found and how common they are. Understanding the influence of these factors is important for predicting how animals may react to climate change, introduced species, and emerging diseases. Pathogens (organisms that cause disease) exert unique influence because they are typically specialized on a few species, whereas the impacts of competing species and climate change are typically felt by many species. The interaction between pathogens and hosts (animals susceptible to pathogens) can change over time. The populations of hosts can grow as they become resistant to the pathogens and can shrink as the pathogens become more deadly. These phases of expansion and contraction are likely important in determining where species occur and may even promote the formation of new species. Thus, investigating the dynamic interactions between hosts and pathogens can help us understand major patterns of life on earth.This research will result in a book-length synthesis of the factors that determine patterns of distribution and abundance of species of birds. Unique predictions from the potential effects of climate, competitors, and pathogens on populations and their distributions will be tested using data on avian populations obtained from the literature, a variety of databases from monitoring programs, and data from the Principal Investigator's laboratory on the host and geographic distribution of avian malaria parasites (Apicomplexa: Haemosporida). Genetic analyses of populations of birds over their geographic distributions around the Caribbean Basin will provide insight into the temporal dynamics of population expansion and contraction and their role in species formation. Results of these analyses, including a review and synthesis of the related literature, will be described in a book that emphasizes the intrinsic dynamics of ecological communities. Insights arising from the coevolutionary dynamics of pathogens and their hosts have not been explored in either an evolutionary or community context, and will provide a framework for interpreting patterns in community diversity and understanding the responses of species to a changing environment.