NSFDEB-NERC: Diversity and disease: uniting community and disease ecology to understand how biodiversity affects parasite transmission

Biodiversity loss and emerging infectious disease are two of the most formidable scientific challenges for the next century. These phenomena are also inextricably linked: infectious diseases can drive biodiversity loss and shape ecological communities, while community diversity can regulate parasite transmission and infection risk. Hence, understanding the relationship between them is paramount, particularly given intensifying changes in biodiversity and species mixing associated with human activities. However, substantial uncertainty and even seemingly contradictory hypotheses have emerged regarding the direction, magnitude, and generality of the diversity-disease relationship. Resolving these disparate lines of research and developing a more predictive framework requires (i) a more mechanistic approach to understand the direct and indirect pathways through which diversity influences transmission and (ii) assessments of how such effects depend on parasite traits, community assembly, and scale. The central aim of this proposal is to integrate parameterized transmission models with field surveys, laboratory experiments, and whole-ecosystem manipulations to identify the mechanisms through which community diversity affects transmission and their relative importance across an entire guild of parasites (amphibian macroparasites).

Efforts to broaden the educational and applied impacts will fall into three, complementary components.

First, ongoing collaborations with natural resource managers will be harnessed to develop a shared ecological database with the aim of enhancing conservation of wetland ecosystems in California, particularly those that support endangered amphibians. Second, in cooperation with the University of Colorado Natural History Museum, data from this proposal will be developed into an interactive exhibit entitled "Curious Connections in Nature", which will engage elementary and middle school students about the fascinating world of organismal symbioses. The exhibit will include a video on parasite manipulation, directed data explorations using a citizen science platform, and a video game module in which players guide parasites to infect suitable hosts before getting eaten or running out of time. Annual research summits will foster international engagement between the US and UK lab groups. Finally, the PIs will promote experiential education among under-represented groups in both countries and formally train graduate students in outreach through workshops and a multidimensional assessment of the museum exhibit's educational effectiveness.