Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/B503276/1
The Impact of Environmental variation on host-parasite ecology and evolution
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Dr S Sait, University of Leeds, Inst of Integrative & Comparative Biolog
- Grant held at:
- University of Leeds, Inst of Integrative & Comparative Biolog
- Science Area:
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Terrestrial
- ENRIs:
- Natural Resource Management
- Biodiversity
- Science Topics:
- Population Genetics/Evolution
- Conservation Ecology
- Population Ecology
- Community Ecology
- Abstract:
- Host-parasite interactions are pervasive throughout the natural world, forming an important part of all plant and animal communities. Parasites are believed to exert a profound impact on their hosts in terms of their population and evolutionary ecology. For the most part, however, our understanding of host-parasite associations have largely concerned interactions in constant environments, whereas environmental variation can have important effects on both host and parasite populations. There is an urgent need to incorporate environmental variation in host-parasite studies in order to fully understand the population and evolutionary ecology of host-parasite interactions in the natural world, particularly given predicted global climatic changes and their impact on biodiversity. We use a combination of experimental and mathematical approaches to link individual host-parasite interactions with their population and evolutionary ecology. We focus on a well-studied laboratory system comprising a moth and two of its parasites, one a virus, the other a parasitoid wasp. The environment can be varied by changing the quality of the moth's food and by changing temperature. Since the virus and the wasp attack the host in very different ways, we predict that their response to environmental variation will also be very different. At the same time we will develop specialised mathematical models of the data in order to test and develop theory.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/B503276/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Standard Grants Pre FEC
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Standard Grant
This grant award has a total value of £367,423
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Staff | Total - T&S | Total - Other Costs | Total - Indirect Costs | Total - Equipment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £228,951 | £8,824 | £5,570 | £105,318 | £18,763 |
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