2010 — 2011 |
Demas, Gregory French, Susannah Dearing, M. Denise (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Bridging the Gap Between Eco-Immunology and Disease Ecology: Symposium in Salt Lake City, Utah, January 3-7, 2011
This symposium at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology will bring together prominent researchers working in the areas of eco-immunology and disease ecology and to provide a forum to review research in their respective subfields. It will foster collaborations across fields through the discussion of philosophical and empirical research approaches, and generate ideas on how to best utilize current technologies to address the common questions. Disease resistance is a function of pathogen dynamics including prevalence and virulence (disease ecology), but is also driven by the internal physiological state of an individual, including host immune function (eco-immunology). Despite the interconnectedness between the two disciplines the majority of research has focused on only one level of analysis, either ultimate (evolution and ecology of parasites and their effects on life histories) or a proximate (how environmental variables affect immune responses). However, the effects of ecological and evolutionary factors on susceptibility to disease are driven not only by environmental variation in diseases and their vectors but also by differences in host immune function that alters disease susceptibility across individuals. The goal of the symposium is to critically review recent advances in the disciplines of eco-immunology and disease ecology, and to integrate both the proximate and ultimate perspectives into a common theoretical framework.
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0.915 |
2014 — 2019 |
French, Susannah |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Career: Physiological Trade-Offs in Ecoimmunology: Costs For Individuals and Populations
The immune system is important for health and survival in all organisms, including humans. The proposed research seeks to answer the question, "What are the costs of immunity?" This is a central question in the field of ecological immunology. A simplifying assumption is often made that a greater or longer-lasting immune response is advantageous. However, the costs of a more robust immune response may negatively affect other energy intensive processes such as reproduction. Currently, much of immunology research focuses on specific, isolated cellular components of the immune system. Although this level of understanding is important, it is also critical to comprehend how an overall immune response can affect the condition of an individual, including other vital physiological systems. Furthermore, it is presently unclear how individual measures, such as immunity, affect population changes over time. Understanding the link between individuals and populations will allow us to monitor more effectively the health and viability of natural populations, many of which are susceptible to an ever-changing landscape and climate. To address these knowledge gaps the proposed work will test (1) the energetic costs of immunity; (2) the effects of the immune system on other key physiological processes, notably reproduction; and (3) the links between individual immunity and natural populations. Finally, embedded within the research program is a research-based training initiative for future educators, which will incorporate those educators into the proposed scientific research. By providing opportunities for future educators to ?do science,? this research will enhance the educational experiences and understanding of the scientific process for educators and for their students. The impacts of this educational program even in its initial stages will be broad, because there is an inherent multiplier effect. In sum, the proposed research and educational program has the capability to transform the principles underlying immunological research and to enhance the science education curriculum both for future instructors and for their students.
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0.915 |
2020 — 2021 |
Kapheim, Karen French, Susannah Knapp, Charles |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Rapid: Covid-19 Induced Cessation of Ecotourism and Supplemental Feeding: Implications For Wildlife Physiology, Reproduction, and the Microbiome
Wildlife feeding by tourists is a widespread phenomenon across various species and environments. While it can provide important economic benefits to countries and local communities, it also poses significant challenges for affected wildlife. These widespread practices may induce habituation, cause stress, impact health, and alter growth and survival, all of which can lead to population changes. However, the ability to control for extraneous factors in tourism-related wildlife feeding conditions is often difficult if not impossible, rendering scientific study challenging. Furthermore, the effects of termination of wildlife feeding have rarely been considered. The unprecedented cessation of tourism and food provisioning due to the COVID-19 global pandemic has created a natural experiment that meets the aforementioned challenges to directly test the effects of this phenomenon on critically endangered rock iguanas in The Bahamas. The proposed work will leverage this unique opportunity to test the effects of widescale resource restriction and dietary change on the health of free-living animals. The implications of this work reach far beyond that of the tourist sector and can inform the effects of resource restriction for natural populations across species on a broader scale. Thus, understanding the consequences of supplemental feeding cessation will help inform countries on a broader scale that are working at making tourism practices more sustainable, which is particularly important for endangered species.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a unique situation via the restriction of human movement and contact resulting in severely reduced global travel. As a result, in countries like The Bahamas, there has been the complete removal of tourist stress and feeding pressures on wildlife across the country. Recent findings by the PIs examining critically endangered iguanas across an insular landscape in The Bahamas have illustrated significant tourist-driven effects on physiology and gut microbial composition. This work has also revealed significant associations among tourism, bacterial abundance, and physiology. The recent and sudden release from supplemental feeding by tourists has created a rare natural experiment by which the PIs can directly test the effects of diet shifts and restriction in natural populations of long-lived iguanas where pre-pandemic data are already available. The PIs will specifically focus on the gut microbiome, and test for direct associations and directionality with physiological systems important to health and survival. Moreover, the ongoing 40-year demographic study in this system will allow the PIs to relate this to survival, growth, and recruitment at the population level. The research group will work to facilitate transfer of results from this study to The Bahamas via long standing research partnerships and will provide opportunistic clarity on potential management strategies moving forward. To reach the broader community, outcomes will also be reported via Shedd Aquarium media and exhibits.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
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0.915 |
2021 — 2024 |
Womack, Molly Mason, Jeffrey Savitzky, Alan Kapheim, Karen French, Susannah |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Mri: Acquisition of Microct For Research and Training in Biology
An award is made to Utah State University to acquire an X-ray microCT scanner, which will allow investigators to analyze the interior structure of objects in three dimensions, nondestructively. The instrument will support a wide range of biological research, as well as other scientific and engineering studies, and faculty researchers, graduate students, and undergraduates will be trained in the use of this important technology. Native American students from the University’s Blanding Campus, 400 miles south of the main campus in Logan, will use the instrument as participants in summer mentorship programs and will be able to continue studying and analyzing the digital images after they return to their home campus. Importantly, the instrument will be used to generate digital images of certain species of animals that, for cultural reasons, cannot be studied by those students from physical specimens, providing a wider range of potential research projects. The instrument will also generate images of fossils in the University’s Prehistoric Museum, which can then be displayed alongside the specimens themselves in the Museum’s public exhibits in the rural town of Price. On the main campus faculty and students in the university’s renowned ceramics program will use the instrument to conduct studies of novel glazing and firing methods.
Biologists at Utah State University will apply microCT technology to a diverse array of research projects, generating 3D images of both animals and plants to investigate a wide range of phenomena. Among its many applications, the instrument will be used to study evolutionary changes in anatomical features, such as the middle ear structure of frogs (which has consequences for their vocal communication), blood vessels that supply specialized defensive organs and endocrine glands in chemically defended snakes, and changes in brain structure associated with the evolution of social behavior in bees. Other researchers will examine the reproductive condition and immune tissues of lizards exposed to environmental stressors in urban areas, the impact of genetics on inflammatory processes in mammalian bone, the structure of biologically engineered fibers, the geometry of plant root systems, and specializations that permit an invasive aquatic fern to harbor nitrogen-fixing bacteria. The digital images that are produced will be used in scientific publications, educational resources (including digital images for use by veterinary students), and public outreach. Beyond the biological sciences, faculty and students in other departments at Utah State University will apply microCT technology to their research on geological faults, microbial mats that form in highly saline waters, and the manufacture and safety of engineered materials.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
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0.915 |