Disease ecology and ecophysiology of wildlife in changing ecosystems

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Widespread environmental change, including the loss of biodiversity and habitat fragmentation, affects wildlife health in complex ways. As a key example, disease transmission may increase or decrease in response to habitat fragmentation, depending on characteristics of wildlife hosts, parasites, and the ecosystems in which they live. To identify management interventions that promote balanced parasite-host interactions, we must understand the mechanisms by which environmental change affects those interactions. Accordingly, the proposed research will investigate three mechanisms by which environmental change is hypothesized to influence parasite-host interactions: 1) via changes in the abundance and composition of predator populations; 2) through habitat change that influences parasite transmission; and 3) through stress-induced immunosuppression. This Discovery Grant will fund a student-led research program to test these hypotheses by drawing on large, existing datasets. Specifically, we will use a long-term dataset of chronic wasting disease to examine the role of predators-including both human hunters and natural predators-in disease spread and prevalence. We will also develop strategic collaborations with a team of wildlife managers and biologists working on a long-term, large-scale study investigating moose and caribou health. These relationships and data will enable us to evaluate how habitat change, including road density and fragmentation, affects ungulate health, specifically winter tick infestation severity and prevalence. Moreover, we will examine whether these variables related to habitat change also influence physiological stress in moose and caribou, and whether elevated stress is linked with immunosuppression. We will supplement existing data with additional field sampling and lab analyses. All analyses will draw on spatial environmental datasets compiled from a variety of sources. Collectively, the proposed projects will build capacity of trainees ranging from undergraduate to PhD students, who will emerge with improved skills and networks to address complex wildlife health problems. Our research team will generate new insight into the effects of environmental change on parasite-host interactions, which will help predict and mitigate the effects of future environmental change on wildlife health. For example, our findings may identify novel approaches that promote balanced host-parasite interactions, including harvest strategies aimed at reducing disease prevalence and landscape configurations that minimize parasite transmission. Our research is particularly relevant as it focuses on species of high cultural, economic, and conservation importance, including moose and caribou, as well as diseases of widespread concern in Canada, including chronic wasting disease and winter tick. Finally, our findings have a high probability of being incorporated into management strategies through collaboration with wildlife managers.