CAREER: Parasites, Sea Level Rise, and Ecosystem Dynamics: Investigating the Pattern and Process of Increasing Trematode Prevalence During Transgression

指数表明，在海平面上升的条件下，沿海环境中寄生于蛤蜊及其亲属的寄生扁形虫的发生率显著增加。这些蛤蜊通常是经济上重要的食物来源，或者在对人类重要的食物网中起着至关重要的作用。这种模式已经在两个大陆的河口和海岸环境的现代和化石贝壳中被注意到，但尚未在一个地区的这些环境中得到证实。更重要的是，导致寄生虫病日益严重的环境和/或生物因素仍然未知。该项目将测试该模式的一般适用性，使用各种技术来确定为什么寄生虫在海平面上升期间大量繁殖，并将为确定寄生扁虫及其宿主如何应对环境变化的努力提供长期视角。因此，这项工作将在古生物学、地质学、生态学、寄生虫学、流行病学和医学领域引起广泛的兴趣。本次CAREER项目的教育计划独特地结合了密苏里大学（MU）的地质环境和文化地标，通过开发一门名为“柱的地质学”的新课程，扩大公众对地球系统过程和历史的理解。预测21世纪病原体如何应对环境变化的尝试往往缺乏生态系统如何应对地质时期类似变化的视角。通过将各种地质、古生物学、生态学和地球化学技术应用于最近的化石记录，这个变革性的项目将调查寄生虫的模式和过程，作为海底生态系统的关键组成部分，它们的群落如何在全新世和更新世海平面周期中做出反应。将研究各种因素，如盐度、温度、寄主可用性和群落结构。与此同时，PI正在开发一门名为“地柱地质学”的课程，以改善有关深时间和地球系统过程基本原理的教育，这是该奖项研究的关键主题。该课程将为约600名通识教育本科生开设新课程，并为密苏里州及其他地区的初中和高中科学教师开设标准导向的专业发展研讨会和在线课程。PI和意大利博洛尼亚大学（universitdi Bologna）的同事将为研究生和本科生（REU）提供指导的国际研究经验。

The PI has shown that the occurrence of parasitic flatworms infesting clams and their relatives in coastal environments increased significantly during conditions of sea level rise. These clams are often economically important sources of food or play vital roles in food webs important to humans. This pattern has been noted in modern and fossil shells from estuaries and shore environments on two continents, but has not yet been demonstrated across these environments in a single region. More importantly, the environmental and/or biological factors driving the increasing severity of parasitism remain unknown. This project will test the general applicability of the pattern, use a variety of techniques to determine why parasites flourished during sea level rise, and will provide a long term perspective for efforts to determine how parasitic flatworms and their hosts will likely respond to environmental change. As such, this work will be of broad interest in paleobiology, geology, ecology, parasitology, epidemiology, and medicine. The education plan for this CAREER proposal is uniquely integrated with the research by taking advantage of the geological setting and cultural landmarks at the University of Missouri (MU) to expand the public understanding of Earth systems processes and history through the development of a novel curriculum called The Geology of the Columns.Attempts to predict how pathogens will respond to environmental change in the 21st Century often lack a perspective of how ecosystems have responded to similar change over geologic time. By applying a variety of geological, paleontological, ecological, and geochemical techniques to the recent fossil record, this transformative project will investigate the pattern and process of how parasites, as key and often overlooked components of seafloor ecosystems, and their communities have responded during Holocene and Pleistocene sea level cycles. A variety of factors will be examined, such as salinity, temperature, host availability and community structure. In parallel, the PI is developing a curriculum called Geology of the Columns to improve education about the basic principles of deep time and Earth systems processes, key themes in the research of this award. This curriculum will lead to a new course reaching ~600 general education undergraduate students and a standards-oriented professional development workshop and online course for middle and high school science teachers in Missouri and beyond. The PI and colleagues at the Universitá di Bologna (Italy) will provide mentored international research experiences for graduate and undergraduate students (REU).