RESEARCH PROJECT: Parasite Community Assembly and Disassembly

Students interested in conducting undergraduate and graduate thesis research for Spring-Fall semesters 2023 feel free to contact me at: santiagoalarcon@usf.edu

The project aims to understand the succession and assembly process of avian malaria communities using long term research at the USF Forest Preserve, and across an urbanization gradient in the Tampa area. 

For more information on the forest preserve visit: https://www.usf.edu/arts-sciences/departments/ib/research/forest-preserve.aspx

The main vertebrate group to study is birds and the parasites are the group of malarias and related haemosporidians (vector-borne blood parasites).

Students interested in conducting graduate work (M.Sc. and Ph.D.) please visit our graduate program web page at https://www.usf.edu/arts-sciences/departments/ib/graduate/index.aspx, so you can get all the information and see financial options (e.g., TAs, Fellowships).

GLOBAL WILDLIFE SUSCEPTIBILITY TO DISEASE

 

Robles-Fernández A, Santiago-Alarcon D, Lira-Noriega A. 2022. Wildlife susceptibility to infectious diseases at global scales. PNAS USA 119:e2122851119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2122851119

General Audience Media Links

USF Press Release

This Week in PNAS

NatGeo Spain

LANDSCAPE FUTURE PREDICTION OF AVIAN MALARIA PREVALENCE IN MEXICO

Ortega-Guzmán L, Rojas-Soto O, Santiago-Alarcon D, Huber-Sannwald E, Chapa-Vargas L. 2022. Climate predictors and climate change projections for avian haemosporidian prevalence in Mexico. Parasitology 1-16, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031182022000683

Long-term, inter-annual and seasonal variation in temperature and precipitation influence the distribution and prevalence of intraerythrocytic haemosporidian parasites. We characterized the climatic niche behind the prevalence of the three main haemosporidian genera (Haemoproteus, Plasmodium and Leucocytozoon) in central-eastern Mexico, to understand their main climate drivers. Then, we projected the influence of climate change over prevalence distribution in the region. Using the MaxEnt modelling algorithm, we assessed the relative contribution of bioclimatic predictor variables to identify those most influential to haemosporidian prevalence in different avian communities within the region. Two contrasting climate change scenarios for 2070 were used to create distribution models to explain spatial turnover in prevalence caused by climate change. We assigned our study sites into polygonal operational climatic units (OCUs) and used the general haemosporidian prevalence for each OCU to indirectly measure environmental suitability for these parasites. A high statistical association between global prevalence and the bioclimatic variables ‘mean diurnal temperature range’ and ‘annual temperature range’ was found. Climate change projections for 2070 showed a significant modification of the current distribution of suitable climate areas for haemosporidians in the study region.