You can read all about Mallory's accomplishments here.
I appeared on NBC Bay Area News
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Stanford-Researchers-Examine-How-Warming-Temps-May-Help-Spread-Mosquito-Borne-Diseases-421235693.html?_osource=SocialFlowTwt_BAYBrand
NPR
http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/04/21/523066394/-curiousgoat-will-climate-change-help-ticks-and-mosquitoes-spread-disease
Bio Report Podcast
https://soundcloud.com/levine-media-group/why-climate-change-is-a-public-health-concern
Best papers of 2016 by MPF labs:
Andrew - Ellner, Snyder, Adler - How to quantify the temporal storage effect using simulations instead of math - Ecol Letters
Nick - Peters et al - Predictors of elevational biodiversity gradients change from single taxa to the multi-taxa community level - Nature Commmunications
Tad - Yackulic - Competitive exclusion over broad spatial extents is a slow process: evidence and implications for species distribution modeling - Ecography
Manpreet - Gallone et al. Domestication and Divergence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Beer Yeasts - Cell
Gabriel - Terrer et al. - Mycorrhizal association as a primary control of the CO2 fertilization effect - Science
Meghan - Stephens et al - The macroecology of infectious diseases: a new perspective on global-scale drivers of pathogen distributions and impacts - Ecology Letters
Joe/Max - Locey and Lennon - Scaling laws predict global microbial diversity - PNAS
Laura - Vellend - Theory of Ecological Communities - Princeton Univ Press
Nicole - Sugihara et al. (2012) - Detecting causality in complex ecosystems - Science
Jeff - Liang et al. - Positive biodiversity-productivity relationship predominant in global forests - Science
Kabir - Bruns and Taylor - Comment on "Global assessment of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus diversity reveals very low endemism" - Science
Glade - Carini et al - Relic DNA is abundant in soil and obscures estimates of soil microbial diversity - Nature Microbiology
Priscilla - Bik et al. - Marine mammals harbor unique microbiotas shaped by and yet distinct from the sea - Nature Communications
Tess - Gonzalez et al - Estimating local biodiversity change: a critique of papers claiming no net loss of local diversity - Ecology
Po-Ju - Barabás et al - The Effect of Intra- and Interspecific Competition on Coexistence in Multispecies Communities - Am Nat
Jes - Spribille et al - Basidiomycete yeasts in the cortex of ascomycete macrolichens - Science
Marta - Wen et al - Explaining the geographical origins of seasonal influenza A (H3N2) - Proc Roy Soc B
Erin - Deyle et al. Global environmental drivers of influenza. - PNAS
At this year's American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene meeting I presented a poster about our temperature-dependent R0 model for Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus, as applied to Zika, dengue, and chikungunya. Optimal temperature for transmission is 29C, and the effects of temperature are borne out in the human incidence data. Here I am with my co-authors, Sadie Ryan, Anna Stewart Ibarra, and Cat Lippi.
Sandya Kalavacherla, a high school intern in the lab this past summer, wrote a really nice article in Teen Voices about barriers to women in STEM fields, including a quote from yours truly. Check it out!
http://womensenews.org/2016/11/girls-gravitate-to-some-stem-classes-avoid-others/
Dan Quinn has put up his favorite Jasper Ridge photos from the past year. I particularly loved #56, in which our experiment makes a cameo behind a famous oak tree.
http://capturethelight.zenfolio.com/2016best
A postdoc position is available at Stanford University to use mathematical models, field data, and remote sensing to predict dengue transmission, and to apply the predictive models to improve vector control in Kenya and Ecuador. The postdoc will work with Erin Mordecai (mordecailab.com), Desiree LaBeaud (https://labeaudlab.wordpress.com/), and Eric Lambin (https://earth.stanford.edu/eric-lambin) on a project funded by the Woods Institute for the Environment’s Environmental Ventures Program (https://woods.stanford.edu/research/environmental-venture-projects). The appointment is for two years.
The postdoc will work to combine mechanistic, climate-driven models of dengue transmission with remote sensing data to predict dengue transmission in Ecuador and Kenya. The postdoc will collaborate with field researchers and policymakers in Ecuador and Kenya sites to integrate the predictive models into vector control policy. The position will be based at Stanford University, but the postdoc will have the opportunity to travel to Kenya and Ecuador for short periods to meet with policymakers.
Candidates with strong analytical and remote sensing data analysis skills, and backgrounds in ecology, evolution, or infectious disease biology are especially encouraged to apply. The successful candidate will be an independent, highly motivated problem solver who communicates well and enjoys working in a collaborative, interdisciplinary environment.
To apply, please send a cover letter that describes your interest in the project, a curriculum vitae, and the contact information for three references to Erin Mordecai at emordeca@stanford.edu. Please combine all components of the application into a single file and include “EVP postdoc” in the subject line. Review of applications will begin on September 12, 2016 and continue until the position is filled.
Student Jenny Kim made a video about our research to understand the environmental and social causes of the Zika epidemic in the Americas, and its human impact. See a few of my rockstar students--Jamieson O'Marr, Sasha Harrison, Anna Verwillow, Chris LeBoa, Javarcia Ivory, and Rebia Khan--talk about what they learned.
A new NSF news story covers our vector-borne disease work in Ecuador, and its links to the Zika epidemic. Check it out!
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Dear colleagues,
We are very pleased to announce the launch of a new NIH/BBSRC funded Research Coordination Network on the role of Vector Behaviour in Transmission Ecology: VectorBiTE.
Over the next 5 years, this RCN will support annual meetings and workshops to promote collaborative research and training in order to improve our understanding of how the behavioural ecology of vectors impacts disease transmission. Additionally, a key component of this effort will be the creation of a global database on vector traits, population dynamics and transmission rates. For more information on our network goals please see: http://vectorbite.org/
Our first meeting will take place at in Clearwater, FL from March 23-25, 2015. During this first meeting we will organize participants into working groups and plan the online repository structure. Please register for the RCN on the website and apply for the meeting at http://vectorbite.org/. We plan to provide travel support for approximately 40 participants to attend. Applications received by February 1 will receive full consideration, although will continue to evaluate applications on a rolling basis until all spaces have been filled. We are pleased to begin this new adventure and look forward to providing a new platform for interaction in this important area.
Exciting time ahead!
Best wishes,
Leah Johnson, Lauren Cator, Erin Mordecai, Samraat Pawar, and Pete Hudson
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Want to participate in a new NSF funded Research Coordination Network on Vector Behavior in Transmission Ecology (Vector BiTE)? Visit our splash page to sign up: http://www.johnson-gramacy.com/vectorbite/
The goal of the RCN is to connect researchers in vector ecology, behavior, and physiology across systems and approaches, and to develop an online database for vector trait data and population time series. We welcome researchers at all stages to participate. Our first meeting will take place in Clearwater, FL on March 23-25 and some travel funds are available!
Nov. 24, 2015
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A larger portion of Africa is currently at high risk for malaria transmission than previously predicted, according to a new University of Florida mapping study.
Under future climate regimes, the area where the disease can be transmitted most easily will shrink, but the total transmission zone will expand and move into new territory, according to the study, which appears in the current issue of the journal Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases.
By 2080, the study shows, the year-round, highest-risk transmission zone will move from coastal West Africa, east to the Albertine Rift, between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. The area suitable for seasonal, lower-risk transmission will shift north into coastal sub-Saharan Africa.
Most striking, some parts of Africa will become too hot for malaria.
The overall expansion of malaria-vulnerable areas will challenge management of the deadly disease, said lead author Sadie Ryan, an assistant professor of geography at the University of Florida who also is affiliated with UF’s Emerging Pathogens Institute.
Malaria will arrive in new areas, posing a risk to new populations, she said, and the shift of endemic and epidemic areas will require public health management changes.
“Mapping a mathematical predictive model of a climate-driven infectious disease like malaria allows us to develop tools to understand both spatial and seasonal dynamics, and to anticipate the future changes to those dynamics,” Ryan said.
Cerebral malaria, caused by the parasite Plasmodium falciparum transmitted by the Anopheles gambiae mosquito, is the most deadly form of the disease, killing around 584,000 people each year. Malaria can cause organ failure, unconsciousness, and coma, if left untreated, and is a major cause of decreased economic productivity in affected regions.
The study uses a model that takes into account the real, curved, physiological responses of both mosquitoes and the malaria parasite to temperature. This model shows an optimal transmission temperature for malaria that, at 25 degrees Celsius, is 6 degrees Celsius lower than previous predictive models.
This work will play an important role in helping public health officials and NGOs plan for the efficient deployment of resources and interventions to control future outbreaks of malaria and their associated societal costs, Ryan said.
The collaborative research team includes experts in epidemiology, public health, ecology, entomology, mathematical modeling and geography. In addition to Ryan, other team members are Amy McNally (NASA), Leah Johnson (University of South Florida), Erin A. Mordecai (Stanford University), Tal Ben-Horin (Rutgers), Krijn Paaijmans (Universitat de Barcelona) and Kevin D. Lafferty (University of California, Santa Barbara).
The work expands upon the team’s prior work at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
We found a good use for our old fungal cultures, and practiced our knife-wielding skills on some pumpkins last month. Sadly, we did not win any Bio department competitions, but we'll get 'em next year. Fungus Culture pumpkin by Erin Spear, Grass Roots pumpkin by Caroline Daws, and Anopheles gambiae pumpkin by Erin Mordecai.
With the heroic efforts of Caroline, Erin S., our fantastic undergraduate team (Johannah, Liz, and Songhee), and honorary lab member Joe Sertich, we counted and weighed seeds, glued stuff to other stuff, and dug holes with pitchforks to get our big field experiment deployed in Jasper Ridge! Special thanks to the Jasper Ridge staff for installing our silt fence.
The experiment will measure the demographic rates (survival, germination, reproduction, competition) of five California grassland plant species and how they respond to fungal infection. The plants, two native perennial grasses and three exotic annual grasses, share a lot of foliar fungal pathogens. We will manipulate fungal pathogen abundance using field inoculations and fungicide. Over the course of the year, we will be tracking pathogen abundance and community composition as well as plant demography. With this information, we will parameterize population growth models to ask how pathogens influence plant population growth and the outcome of competition. We'll test the model predictions using other plants that naturally vary in plant composition, where we'll experimentally manipulate pathogens.
Stay posted to see our progress!
We had such a great time with our undergraduate Johannah Farner and interns Divya Ramani and Ryan Tabibi this summer that we went to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk to celebrate. Unfortunately Ryan had already left for school in Asheville, North Carolina, but future Banana Slug Divya was left to show us around her new college town. We all enjoyed riding the Giant Dipper, and we rode the Fireball but only Erin M. enjoyed it. The ocean was so warm from El Nino and The Blob that we waded around in the water for awhile. Good times were had by all, especially when we recovered from the Fireball. Divya celebrated with a lab selfie.
Wake Forest graduate Joe Napier worked on a summer project with Erin M. and Rob Heckman last summer at the University of North Carolina. His project asked how drought and herbivory (clipping) affected competition between two common grass species. He found that clipping ameliorated the effect of drought for one species. Using a model parameterized with the greenhouse experiment data, he asked whether environmental fluctuation in water availability and herbivory could stabilize coexistence of the two grass species and found that it did not. The paper is provisionally accepted at Oecologia. Joe is now a PhD student with Feng-Sheng Hu at the University of Illinois.
Check out Erin Mordecai's talk at the Center for International Security and Cooperation, on November 2 at 11:30 am. Location: CISAC Central Conference Room, Encina Hall, 2nd Floor, 616 Serra St., Stanford, CA 94305. Here's what she'll be talking about:
Concerns are mounting that changes in climate, land use, species invasions, and connectivity are changing the global landscape of infectious diseases. Ecological complexity makes these anthropogenic effects on infectious disease difficult to predict. Using data-driven mathematical models, I will show how mosquito-transmitted diseases such as malaria, dengue, and chikungunya may shift with changing climate. I will then discuss sources of uncertainty and how ecological understanding can help to mitigate future shifts in disease risk. Finally, I will introduce the new Center for Disease Ecology, Health, and Development based at Stanford University, which will work to improve human health and well-being through ecological solutions to infectious disease.
Our paper on the community ecology of plant viruses was accepted in American Naturalist! In it, we use a three-virus, two-vector, one-plant model parameterized with tons of empirical data on Barley Yellow Dwarf Viruses to study the mechanisms that maintain virus coexistence. It turns out that multiple virus species coinfecting individual plants is critical: without coinfection, viruses couldn't coexist, but even very rare coinfections (8% success rate) strongly promote coexistence. But coinfection alone isn't enough. A tradeoff between vector generality (using more than one vector species) and specialization (transmitting efficiently in a single vector) sustains the coexistence of two closely related BYDV species that strongly compete. Finally, competitive exclusion or coexistence depends on aphid density in interesting ways; for example, vector specialist virus MAV can exclude vector generalist PAV when their shared vector is common, unless a second vector is also abundant. And even when long-term competitive exclusion occurs, we observe a lot of coinfected plants en route to exclusion. This work tells a lot about what kinds of pathogen coexistence and life history tradeoffs can sustain diverse pathogen communities in the face of strong competition for hosts and vectors.