CAREER: Incorporating host phenology into the framework of biodiversity-disease relationships

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Major changes to biodiversity are occurring around the world - this can alter the risk of disease. Understanding and predicting how these changes impact infectious disease requires knowledge of the relationship between biodiversity and disease. However, because biodiversity may vary throughout the year, it can be difficult to measure host diversity and the contribution of each species to disease transmission. Therefore, scientists must understand how the seasonality of organisms in a community affects the risk of disease. In this project, researchers will study seasonal changes to amphibian biodiversity and how these changes impact infection with a fungus. A greater understanding of biodiversity-disease relationships is essential for effective control of emerging infectious diseases and management of susceptible species. This CAREER project also incorporates educational activities that focus on increasing the diversity of students who receive training in the scientific process by providing research opportunities for undergraduate and high school students. This study will combine field sampling, experimental manipulations, and modeling to incorporate host phenology into the study of biodiversity-disease relationships. The project focuses on the following complementary objectives: (1) enhance estimates of host competence for individual species by incorporating data on temporal habitat use, (2) quantify the temporal niche of a pathogen in communities with varying species composition, and (3) predict the effects of climate change on disease risk via altered host phenology. This work will address these objectives by utilizing an amphibian-fungal pathogen system, where the presence of amphibian host species in the aquatic environment varies seasonally and across space. The educational objectives of this CAREER project focus on increasing the diversity of students receiving quality training in the scientific process. Educational activities include (1) improving the availability of course-based undergraduate research experiences, (2) increasing the diversity of undergraduate research interns, and (3) engaging high school students in research through participation in science fairs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.