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Climate Change Induced Temperature Effects on the Thermal Biology of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis and Disease Dynamics of Chytridiomycosis
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Date
2023Type
DissertationDepartment
Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology
Degree Level
Doctorate Degree
Abstract
The study of disease ecology aims to understand the complex interactions among hosts, environments, and pathogens which result in a final disease outcome. An area of research that has been expanded within this field in recent years is the impact of climate change and global warming. Climate change impacts are of particular concern as the alterations of a host or pathogen’s physiology to more variable or warm environments have been found to be highly influential of disease outcomes in many disease systems. To understand the influence of climate change on disease systems, researchers have assessed the thermal responses of a given pathogen or host in constant laboratory conditions, which may be difficult to relate to more complex, natural environments, or variable field conditions that may be difficult to disentangle direct cause and effect of individual environmental factors on physiological traits. A primary focus of this dissertation is to incorporate the complexities of variable temperatures predicted with climate change conditions in experimental evolution that can assess the implications of climate change on a pathogen known as Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and the resulting disease outcomes within the chytridiomycosis system. In the first chapter of this dissertation, I conduct a literature review of the impact climate change may have on disease systems and the role that temperature has on the thermal biology and adaptive potential of pathogens and hosts within a given disease system. In the second chapter, I assess and establish the characteristics of thermal biology for multiple isolates of Bd that will be used in later chapters. In the third chapter, I use the knowledge of the thermal biology of the isolate from New Mexico to understand patterns of seasonal infection intensity observed in the field. In the last chapter, I assess the physiological responses and adaptive potential of previously studied isolates within this dissertation when experimentally evolved to climate change simulations.
Permanent link
http://hdl.handle.net/11714/10568Additional Information
Committee Member | Allen, Julie; Hurtado, Paul; Logan, Mike; Richards-Zawacki, Corinne |
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Rights | Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 United States |
Rights Holder | Author(s) |