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Since understanding the repercussions of anthropogenic disturbances has strong conservation implications, I am interested in how species behaviourally, physiologically, and ecologically respond to environmental change. Are individual responses to variable environmental stimuli adaptive or maladaptive? By exploring these interactions, I wish to inform how such responses shape population dynamics, species interactions, and ultimately wildlife conservation in the face of environmental disturbance. Assessing the pressures and mechanisms underlying such changes has the potential to substantially enhance our comprehension of species adaptations in nature, and shed light on the way variation in individual behaviour and interactions with conspecifics, heterospecifics, and the environment contributes to the spatial and temporal structure and function of wildlife populations and communities in a changing environment.
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Disease Ecology and White-Nose Syndrome Although the effects of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) on host population dynamics are still underappreciated, recent research in the field of disease ecology has demonstrated EIDs' potential to cause severe and long-lasting impacts on wildlife populations, including strong population declines and ecological community disruptions. They are also increasingly regarded as potential drivers of local and regional extirpations, and even extinctions, which make them a critical threat to biodiversity.
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Still today, the physiological mechanism underlying this impaired hibernation phenotype remains unknown. A better understanding of interactions between hosts, pathogens, and their environment (i.e., disease triangle) is crucial to determine factors that contribute to disease virulence, transmission and spread, as well as host susceptibility and resilience. I am particularly interested in studying behavioural and ecological aspects of host-pathogen dynamics in North American bat populations affected by WNS. |