About the Project
This project is one of a number that are in competition for funding from the NERC Great Western Four+ Doctoral Training Partnership (GW4+ DTP). The GW4+ DTP consists of the Great Western Four alliance of the University of Bath, University of Bristol, Cardiff University and the University of Exeter plus six Research Organisation partners: British Antarctic Survey, British Geological Survey, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the Met Office, the Natural History Museum and Plymouth Marine Laboratory. The partnership aims to provide a broad training in earth and environmental sciences, designed to train tomorrow’s leaders in earth and environmental science. For further details about the programme please see http://nercgw4plus.ac.uk/
The studentships will provide funding for a stipend which is currently £14,553 per annum for 2017-2018, research costs and UK/EU tuition fees at Research Council UK rates for 42 months (3.5 years) for full-time students, pro rata for part-time students.
Location: Penryn Campus, Cornwall
Project description:
Outbreaks and virulence of infectious diseases are predicted to be impacted by climate change, for instance through the modification or expansion of pathogen geographic ranges. However, precisely how networks of interacting hosts and pathogens will respond to climate change remains to be determined. Field studies of the impact of climate change are typically plagued with the difficulty that they either require the long-term monitoring of natural populations during which the climate changes, or the comparison of populations at different latitudes, such that effects of climate are confounded with other environmental factors.
This project will examine how climate change is affecting the interactions between malaria parasites (genera Plasmodium, Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon)1 and their avian great tit (Parus major) and blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) hosts2,3 in the French Pyrenees, where altitude (and hence climate), but not habitat or day length, varies significantly over short geographic distances.
Project Aims and Methods:
To what extent does climate change (altitudinal differences) give rise to local adaptations of host-pathogen and pathogen-pathogen interactions? The project will characterise the interactions between two host species and their pathogens, as well as between pathogens within the host environment.
The PhD candidate will take advantage of closely monitored nest-box populations of great tits (Parus major) and blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus), located over short geographical distances (4-16km) at various altitudes (400-1600m) of the
Pyrenees Mountains. Birds will be captured, ringed and monitored over 4 study sites yearround. Measures of body condition, breeding investment, ecological characteristics (tree species composition, phenology and food availability) and blood samples will be collected to determine seasonal differences in life history, ecology, prevalence and transmission of
infection4,5. Host movements and genetic structuring will be assessed using population genetics, and host switching of the parasite will be assessed using phylogenetics6-8. The findings of this study will shed light on the ability of hosts to respond to modifications of pathogen communities and pathogen transmission seasonality resulting from climate change. This project will provide a highly motivated student the opportunity to use molecular approaches to address an important question in climate change research and disease ecology.
Candidate:
It is expected that the student will live on-site in the Pyrenees for a few months each year. It would be advantageous to have experience with working in the field and/or to enjoy working for long-hours in potentially difficult terrain. Some knowledge of French would be helpful but not required.
Case Award Description:
The project will be conducted in collaboration with Dr Alexis Chaine, from the Station of Theoretical and Experimental Ecology of the French National Centre for Scientific Research, which is situated in the Pyrenees Mountains. The candidate will conduct fieldwork at the Station and benefit from its state-of-the-art molecular and experimental facilities, as well as world-class theoretical and empirical expertise on the impacts of climate change on biodiversity.
Training:
The project will yield considerable and transferrable field and laboratory skills, as well as important analytical skills. The student will be trained on how to monitor natural populations, conduct laboratory work (PCR and qPCR), as well as undertake bioinformatic and phylogenetic analyses on the sequence data generated.
References
References:
1. Pérez-Tris J et al. 2005. What are malaria parasites? Trend Parasitology 21:209
2. van Rooyen et al. 2013. Altitudinal variation in haemosporidian parasite distribution in great tit populations. Parasites & Vectors 6:139
3. Knowles SC et al. 2010. Chronic malaria infections increase family inequalities and reduce parental fitness: experimental evidence from a wild bird population. Journal Evolutionary Biology 23:557
4. Bonneaud C, Sepil I, Wilfert L, Calsbeek R. 2017. Plasmodium infections in natural populations of Anolis sagrei reflect tolerance rather than susceptibility. Comparative and Integrative Biology.
5. Staley M, Bonneaud C. 2015. Immune responses of wild birds to emerging infectious diseases. Parasite Immunology, 37:242.
6. Kutschera VE, Frosch C, Janke A, Skírnisson K, Bidon T, Lecomte N, Fain SR, Eiken H-G, Hagen SB, Nowak C, Hailer F. 2016. High genetic variability of vagrant polar bears illustrates importance of population connectivity in fragmented sea ice habitats. Animal Conservation 19: 337
7. Hailer F, Olsson SL, James HF, Fleischer RC. 2015. Distinct and extinct: genetic differentiation of the Hawaiian eagle. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 83: 40
8. Bidon T, Janke A, Fain SR, Eiken HG, Hagen SB, Saarma U, Hallström BM, Lecomte N, Hailer F. 2014. Brown and polar bear Y chromosomes reveal extensive male-biased gene flow within brother lineages. Molecular Biology and Evolution 31: 1353
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