The impact of parasitism on host populations in response to a changing environment

Deadline 20 May - interested individuals should email [Email Address Removed] directly. Send a two page Curriculum Vitae including contact details for two academic referees; a one page statement of research interests and grades/transcript of marks.

It is widely acknowledged that pathogens can be a major cost to host fitness and have a major impact on animal populations. What is less clear is why individuals vary so much in how they respond to infection. Furthermore, these responses to parasitism may change over time – both phenological time and within an individual’s lifespan. We have shown that successful breeding in a long-lived, threatened seabird, the European shag Phalacrocorax aristotelis, is constrained by parasitism, particularly in late breeders. Seasonal declines in reproductive performance are a widespread phenomenon in natural populations of temperate regions. Furthermore, these effects are sex specific with different consequences for sons and daughters and for different members of a brood. However, the proximate mechanisms underlying host responses and breeding success remain unclear. Are these effects driven by seasonal changes in parasite level, do individuals vary in their susceptibility to infection over time or are these effects simply a consequence of seasonal changes in the composition of breeders that differ in their overall ability to deal with parasitism? It is important to distinguish between these different potential explanations if any prediction is to be made as to how forecast changes in their environment will impact on overall breeding success. This project will focus on the first two of these possibilities by establishing how parasite load varies between and within individuals over time, what impact these loads have on breeding success and survival and potentially how these relate to different immune responses in the host. With major shifts in breeding dates being widely reported the need to establish these mechanisms has become more urgent.

This project will combine field studies (based on the Isle of May National Nature Reserve) with lab work and data analysis of both new and historical long-term data and samples to examine the impact of different parasite loads on the breeding success of the Isle of May population. There is also scope to address how different life-history traits may lead to variation between individuals in their susceptibility to infection, family patterns of infection and an individual’s ability to deal with infection at different stages of their life. The project is part of on an ongoing collaborative project between Dr Emma Cunningham at the University of Edinburgh (http://homepages.ed.ac.uk/ecunning/) and Drs Francis Daunt and Sarah Burthe based at CEH Edinburgh http://www.ceh.ac.uk/sci_programmes/IsleofMayLong-TermStudy.html). The project also provides the student the opportunity to interact with a number of bodies involved with fishery and seabird conservation in the North Sea and to direct the scope of the project within the broad remit stated above.