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

生物多样性的重大变化正在世界各地发生-这可能会改变疾病的风险。了解和预测这些变化如何影响传染病，需要了解生物多样性与疾病之间的关系。然而，由于生物多样性可能全年都有变化，因此很难衡量宿主多样性和每个物种对疾病传播的贡献。因此，科学家必须了解群落中生物的季节性如何影响疾病的风险。在这个项目中，研究人员将研究两栖动物生物多样性的季节性变化以及这些变化如何影响真菌感染。更好地了解生物多样性与疾病的关系对于有效控制新出现的传染病和管理易感物种至关重要。该职业项目还包括教育活动，重点是通过为本科生和高中生提供研究机会，增加接受科学过程培训的学生的多样性。本研究将结合联合收割机田间取样、实验操作和建模，将寄主物候学纳入生物多样性与疾病关系的研究中。该项目侧重于以下补充目标：（1）通过纳入关于临时栖息地使用的数据，提高对单个物种的宿主能力的估计，（2）量化病原体在不同物种组成的社区中的时间生态位，以及（3）通过改变宿主物候来预测气候变化对疾病风险的影响。这项工作将通过利用两栖动物-真菌病原体系统来实现这些目标，其中水生环境中两栖动物宿主物种的存在随季节和空间而变化。这个职业项目的教育目标侧重于增加学生在科学过程中接受高质量培训的多样性。教育活动包括（1）提高基于课程的本科生研究经验的可用性，（2）增加本科生研究实习生的多样性，（3）通过参加科学展览会吸引高中生参与研究。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.