Mathematics Colloquia and Seminars

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Parasitism is the most common animal lifestyle, and a large amount of research has been done on the effects of parasites on their hosts. Most hosts exist in highly complex food webs, and many parasite species have adapted to this reality by developing life-history strategies to parallel trophic chains, with some parasites utilizing up to seven different hosts in their lifetime. While there is a large body of research on the stability of food webs in a variety of contexts and a century of research on predator-prey dynamics, very few studies explore how parasites affect the community in which their hosts reside and how community dynamics affect parasite abundance and virulence. In this proposal, I outline three projects which seek to answer questions about how multitrophic parasites affect predator-prey dynamics. The first project addresses the dual evolution of predator foraging niche with predator susceptibility to the negative effects of parasites passed via predation. The second project addresses the feedback loop of how the effect of parasite manipulation on predator-prey dynamics affects the evolution of parasite manipulation. The third project addresses the potentially competing effects of parasite manipulation and predator-induced behavioral change on predator-prey dynamics.

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