Dear colleagues,
Biology Thursday seminar continues on 24th November (usual time this week).
Join us on zoom at 12:15pm with this link:
https://oulu.zoom.us/j/62917763539?pwd=WENZRy9Bb3NlSzlyeVlVamJ4RHR5Zz09
Fletcher Halliday
from University of Zurich will present his research on:
Disease risk under environmental change and biodiversity loss – causes and consequences
We live in an era of rapid global environmental change, biodiversity loss, species introductions, and emerging infectious diseases; understanding relationships among these processes is critical for limiting their impacts on food production,
ecological resilience, and human wellbeing. Yet, doing so is complicated by the fact that these processes occur across spatial and temporal scales. In this talk, I will present research that tests linkages among these processes, while addressing two general
questions: (1) How do interactions among microbial symbionts within host plants alter parasite epidemics? (2) How do abiotic and biotic conditions and their rapid human-driven shifts influence the spread of parasites between hosts? This research takes a complementary
approach to address these questions, using experiments, large-scale field surveys, and data syntheses. In experiments carried out using the model grass, tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea), I will explore how parasite phenology and infection sequence
affect the magnitude of parasite epidemics via within-host priority effects. Then using a combination of meta-analyses, large-scale surveys, and a reciprocal transplant experiment, I will explore disease risk in whole plant communities, and ask how changes
in host community functional traits, host diversity, and species invasions influence disease risk under global change. Ultimately, the goal of this work is to provide a unifying framework for understanding disease risk in a changing world.
More info about Fletcher:
Related research:
1. Halliday et al 2021. The effect of host community functional traits on plant disease risk varies along an elevational gradient. eLife. (https://elifesciences.org/articles/67340)
2. Halliday et al 2017. Interactions among symbionts operate across scales to influence parasite epidemics.
Ecology Letters (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ele.12825)
The seminars program for this semester can be found here:
https://thursdayseminarbiology.wordpress.com/
See you on Thursday!
Noémie
Noémie Pichon
Post-doctoral researcher
University of Oulu, Finland