Helen Gloege, a student in Mount Holyoke College, worked in the lab of Dr. Andy Davis Abstract Daphnia and other animals face a multitude of different stressors in their daily lives. Parasites can cause various physiological changes in animals, yet few prior studies have looked at the combination of parasitism and stress in animal models.
Jenavier Tejada, a student at Denison University, worked in the lab of Dr. Alex Strauss Abstract The dilution effect seeks to explain disease transmission in environments with multiple species. Essentially, the dilution effect predicts an increase in diversity will lead to a decrease in disease transmission. In zooplankton communities, the resistant diluter, Ceriodaphnia dubia can
Emily Landolt, a student in St. Norbert College, worked in the lab of Dr. Alex Strauss Abstract Freshwater zooplankton, such as Daphnia dentifera, are helpful model organisms for studying infectious disease dynamics and are ecologically important because of their role in food webs. They are consumers of primary producers like algae and are prey for
Sofia Markiewicz, a student at Scripps College, worked in the lab of Dr. Jeb Byers Abstract Oysters are a key coastal foundation species that have declined drastically across the US coasts due to the combined effects of overharvesting, pollution, and disease. With climate change, there The eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) is a keystone species and
Hannah O’Grady, a student at Mount Holyoke College, worked in the lab of Dr. Alex Strauss. Abstract An important part of understanding how diseases spread and impact a community is understanding the tradeoffs that occur when a parasite generalizes. While sampling ponds in Whitehall Forest we discovered a potentially novel microsporidian that was able to
