image: The oyster-reef dwelling crab Eurypanopeus depressus with infection by the rhizocephalan barnacle parasite Loxothylacus panopaei. view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Andrew Davis Tucker (University of Georgia, Athens, GA).
Researchers developed an epidemiological model to study the effect of climate warming on host-parasite dynamics in Eurypanopeus depressus, an oyster reef-dwelling crab, and its parasitic barnacle, Loxothylacus panopaei, and found that infection prevalence of the parasite declined in a climate scenario with a temperature increase of 1 °C and that localized extinction of the parasite occurred with 2 °C warming in the coastal southeastern United States, findings with potential implications for understanding the effects of climate warming on host-parasite ecology.
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Article #17-05067: "Host and parasite thermal ecology jointly determine the effect of climate warming on epidemic dynamics," by Alyssa-Lois M. Gehman, Richard J. Hall, and James E. Byers.
MEDIA CONTACT: Alyssa-Lois M. Gehman, University of Georgia, Athens, GA; tel: 206-251-9115; e-mail: <alyssamina@gmail.com>
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences