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Investigating the cascading effects of heatwaves on "Off-Host" parasite stages
How do heatwaves experienced by parasites during their off-host stages influence their virulence and the host's response across generations, ultimately shaping host-parasite interactions and ecosystem dynamics?
How do heatwaves experienced by parasites during their off-host stages influence their virulence and the host's response across generations, ultimately shaping host-parasite interactions and ecosystem dynamics?
Context
Climate change is reshaping ecosystems, influencing species interactions, and altering disease dynamics. My current research investigates how heatwaves impact parasites during their 'off-host' stages in freshwater ecosystems—a critical phase ensuring parasite transmission while exposing them to direct external fluctuations. Examining how these thermal stress events influence their infectivity, manipulation of the host and the subsequent host response. By understanding these effects, I aim to elucidate how altered parasite dynamics cascade into host-parasite co-evolution.
Key research questions
Key research questions
How do heatwaves affect the infectivity and virulence of parasites during their 'off-host' stages?
Understanding these responses is crucial for predicting how heatwaves will affect parasite transmission and the role of Daphnia in freshwater ecosystems.What are the repercussions of thermal stress experienced solely by the parasite on the host response?
This will shed light on the impact of heatwaves across parasite generations and help predict how they may evolve in response to heatwaves.In what ways do these thermal-driven changes shape the co-evolutionary trajectories of host-parasite interactions over different timescale?
This will help understand how parasites adapt to heatwave stressors during the dry season and the implications to Daphnia and phytoplanktonic populations.
This project builds on my expertise in evolutionary parasitology and ecological adaptation, applying experimental evolution to uncover how environmental stressors reshape parasite transmission and host-parasite interactions in a rapidly changing world. This is an ongoing project and as the research progresses, I continue to uncover novel insights into how environmental stress influences parasitic life cycles and host-parasite co-evolution.
Principal Investigator
Supervised students
Noa Lavi Shasha (BSC)
Fatma Akram (BSC)
Research support experts
Enav Bereza (Marcus)
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