CAREER: Reconstructing Parasite Abundance in River Ecosystems Over the Past Half Century

该奖项全部或部分由2021年美国救援计划法案（公法117-2）资助。导致许多传染病的寄生虫是否随着时间的推移而大量增加或减少？这个简单的问题令人惊讶地难以回答，因为过去很少有数据记录寄生虫负担。为了解决这个问题，寄生虫生态学家开发并验证了一种新技术：他们现在可以从自然历史收藏中保存的液体标本中提取寄生虫负担的信息。这一创新为了解传染病格局在过去100年中的变化提供了巨大的机会，因为存在数百万合适的液体保存标本，可以在特定时间和地点提供寄生虫负担的快照。在这个项目中，研究人员将使用液体保存的鱼来重建美国南部和西南部河流生态系统中寄生虫丰度的长期数据。该项目将回答一个长期存在的问题，对社会管理野生动物传染病的能力具有紧迫的影响，同时为学生提供培训机会，让他们参与，贡献和深入参与对一组迷人的生物体，寄生虫的研究。 本计画将探讨寄生虫生态学中的三个基本问题：（Q1）过去半个世纪来，河川生态系统中寄生虫的丰度如何改变？(Q2)随着时间的推移，工业污染和城市化在塑造寄生虫丰度变化方面发挥了什么作用？(Q3)工业污染和城市化如何影响寄生虫群落的稳定性（即抵抗力和恢复力），因为它们经历了其他干扰（例如，干旱）？回顾性对照影响研究设计（即，控制影响前后研究，其中时间是连续的而不是离散的）将允许研究人员测试寄生虫负荷的长期时间变化并确定人为影响的影响（例如，工业污染、城市化）和其他干扰（例如，这是长期的变化。研究人员将把这些数据纳入一个新重新设计的寄生虫生态学课程，将作为一个开放的教育资源共享，并将八名本科生研究人员整合到她的研究团队，为学生提供许多参与动手研究的机会。该项目还将开发一个开放式学习模块，向小学生介绍寄生虫生态学的概念。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Are the parasites that cause many infectious diseases increasing or decreasing in abundance through time? This simple question is surprisingly difficult to answer because few data exist to document parasite burdens in the past. To circumvent this problem, parasite ecologists have developed and validated a new technique: they can now extract information on parasite burden from liquid-preserved specimens held in natural history collections. This innovation opens a massive opportunity to understand how the infectious disease landscape has shifted in the past 100 years, because millions of suitable liquid-preserved specimens exist that can provide snapshots of parasite burden at particular times and places. In this project, the researcher will use liquid-preserved fish to reconstruct long-term data on the abundance of parasites in river ecosystems of the US South and Southwest. This project will answer a long-standing question with pressing implications for society’s ability to manage infectious disease in wildlife, while simultaneously opening training opportunities for students to participate in, contribute to, and deeply engage with research on a fascinating group of organisms, the parasites. This project will address three fundamental questions in parasite ecology: (Q1) How has the abundance of parasites in river ecosystems changed over the past half century? (Q2) What roles have industrial pollution and urbanization played in shaping change in parasite abundance through time? (Q3) How do industrial pollution and urbanization affect the stability (i.e. resistance and resilience) of parasite communities as they experience other disturbances (e.g., drought)? The retrospective control–impact study design (i.e., before–after–control–impact study in which time is continuous rather than discrete) will allow the researcher to test for long-term temporal change in parasite burden and to identify the influence of anthropogenic impacts (e.g., industrial pollution, urbanization) and other disturbances (e.g., drought) on that long-term change. The researcher will incorporate these data into a newly redesigned course in Parasite Ecology that will be shared as an open educational resource and integrate eight undergraduate researchers into her research team, providing many opportunities for students to participate in hands-on research. This project will also result in the development of an open-access learning module that introduces concepts of parasite ecology to elementary-aged learners.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.