A5061341827- Zoonotic diseases and public health
- Evolution and Paleontology Studies
- Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Amphibian and Reptile Biology
- Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
- Parasite Biology and Host Interactions
- Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Plant and animal studies
- Viral Infections and Vectors
- Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research
- Turtle Biology and Conservation
- Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Genetic diversity and population structure
- Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
- COVID-19 epidemiological studies
- Insect symbiosis and bacterial influences
- Entomopathogenic Microorganisms in Pest Control
- Insects and Parasite Interactions
- Insect-Plant Interactions and Control
- Plant Parasitism and Resistance
- Animal Disease Management and Epidemiology
- Physiological and biochemical adaptations
- Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies
Oklahoma State University
2022-2025
University of Georgia
2013-2024
Savannah River National Laboratory
2024
Google (United States)
2021
Stephens College
2021
Stony Brook University
2004-2013
Pepperdine University
2012
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
2007-2011
University of California, Santa Barbara
2011
University of Pittsburgh
2003
A key measure of humanity's global impact is by how much it has increased species extinction rates. Familiar statements are that these 100-1000 times pre-human or background levels. Estimating recent rates straightforward, but establishing a rate for comparison not. Previous researchers chose an approximate benchmark 1 per million year (E/MSY). We explored disparate lines evidence suggest substantially lower estimate. Fossil data yield direct estimates rates, they temporally coarse, mostly...
The extinction of dinosaurs at the Cretaceous/Paleogene (K/Pg) boundary was seminal event that opened door for subsequent diversification terrestrial mammals. Our compilation maximum body size ordinal level by sub-epoch shows a near-exponential increase after K/Pg. On each continent, mammals leveled off 40 million years ago and thereafter remained approximately constant. There remarkable congruence in rate, trajectory, upper limit across continents, orders, trophic guilds, despite...
Biologists have long searched for mechanisms responsible the increase in species richness with decreasing latitude. The strong correlation between and climate is frequently interpreted as reflecting a causal link via processes linked to energy or evolutionary rates. Here, we investigate how aggregation of clades, dictated by phylogeny, can give rise significant climate–richness gradients without diversification environmental carrying capacity. relationship varies considerably regions time...
The concurrent pressures of rising global temperatures, rates and incidence species decline, emergence infectious diseases represent an unprecedented planetary crisis. Intergovernmental reports have drawn focus to the escalating climate biodiversity crises connections between them, but interactions among all three been largely overlooked. Non-linearities dampening reinforcing make considering interconnections essential anticipating challenges. In this Review, we define exemplify causal...
Speciation is the process that ultimately generates species richness. However, time required for speciation to build up diversity in a region rarely considered as an explanation patterns of We explored this "time‐for‐speciation effect" on richness emydid turtles. Emydids show striking pattern high eastern North America (especially southeast) and low other regions. At continental scale, positively correlated with amount emydids have been present speciating each region, being ancestral region....
Do phylogenies and branch lengths based on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) provide a reasonable approximation to those multiple nuclear loci? In the present study, we show widespread discordance between mtDNA (two genes) (nucDNA; six loci) in phylogenetic analysis of turtle family Emydidae. We also find an unusual type involving unexpected homogeneity sequences across species within genera. Of 36 clades combined nucDNA phylogeny, 24 are contradicted by strongly contested each data set. Two genera...
How fast can a mammal evolve from the size of mouse to an elephant? Achieving such large transformation calls for major biological reorganization. Thus, speed at which this occurs has important implications extensive faunal changes, including adaptive radiations and recovery mass extinctions. To quantify pace large-scale evolution we developed metric, clade maximum rate, represents evolutionary rate trait within clade. We applied metric body in mammals over last 70 million years, during...
Illuminating the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of parasites is one most pressing issues facing modern science, critical for basic global economy, human health. Extremely important to this effort are data on disease-causing organisms wild animal hosts (including viruses, bacteria, protozoa, helminths, arthropods, fungi). Here we present an updated version Global Mammal Parasite Database, a database ungulates (artiodactyls perissodactyls), carnivores, primates, make it available...
Summary Most parasites infect multiple hosts, but what factors determine the range of hosts a given parasite can infect? Understanding broad scale determinants distributions across host lineages is important for predicting pathogen emergence in new and estimating diversity understudied species. In this study, we used data set on 793 species reported from free‐ranging populations 64 carnivore to examine that influence sharing between Our results showed are more commonly shared...
Ecological diversification is a central topic in ecology and evolutionary biology. We undertook the first comprehensive species-level phylogenetic analysis of Emydidae (an ecologically diverse group turtles), used resulting phylogeny to test four general hypotheses about ecological diversification. Phylogenetic analyses were based on data from morphology (237 parsimony-informative characters) mitochondrial DNA sequences (547 included 39 40 currently recognized emydid species. Combined all...
In recent decades, the field of historical biogeography has become increasingly divorced from evolutionary biology, ecology, and studies species richness. this paper, we explore causes patterns richness in Northern Hemisphere treefrogs, combining phylogenetics, ancestral area reconstruction, molecular dating methods, ecological niche modeling. We reconstructed phylogenetic relationships among 58 hylid taxa using data two mitochondrial genes (12S, ND1) nuclear (POMC, c-myc). find that...
The origin of sexual size dimorphisms (SSD) has long been a central topic in evolutionary biology. However, there is little agreement as to which factors are most important driving the evolution SSD, and several hypotheses concerning SSD have never tested empirically. Emydid turtles include species with both male female-biased some emydids exhibit among extreme tetrapods. Here, we use comparative phylogenetic approach analyze origins test for first time. We Fairbairn-Preziosi hypothesis...
Abstract Aim The global species richness patterns of birds and mammals are strongly congruent. This could reflect similar evolutionary responses to the Earth’s history, shared current climatic conditions, or both. We compare geographical phylogenetic structures both gradients evaluate these possibilities. Location Global. Methods Gridded bird mammal distribution databases were used their with environment. Phylogenetic trees (resolved family for mammals) examine underlying structures. Our...
The distribution of parasites across mammalian hosts is complex and represents a differential ability or opportunity to infect different host species. Here, we take macroecological approach investigate factors influencing why some show tendency species widely distributed in the phylogeny (phylogenetic generalism) while others only closely related hosts. Using database on over 1400 parasite that have been documented up 69 terrestrial mammal species, characterize phylogenetic generalism using...
The community of host species that a parasite infects is often explained by functional traits and phylogeny, predicting closely related hosts or those with particular share more parasites other hosts. Previous research has examined similarity regressing pairwise dissimilarity between two against phylogenetic distance. However, approaches cannot target specific responsible for disproportionate levels sharing. To better identify why some contribute differentially to diversity patterns, we...
Zoonotic disease outbreaks are an important threat to human health and numerous drivers have been recognized as contributing their increasing frequency. Identifying quantifying relationships between of zoonotic outbreak severity is critical developing targeted surveillance prevention strategies. However, quantitative studies on a global scale lacking. Attributes countries such press freedom, capabilities latitude also bias data. To illustrate these issues, we review the characteristics 100...
Pesticides commonly occur in aquatic systems and pose a substantial challenge to the conservation of many taxa. Ecotoxicology has traditionally met this by focusing on short-term, single-species tests conducting risk assessments based most sensitive species tested. Rarely have ecotoxicology data been examined from an evolutionary perspective, our knowledge, there never phylogenetic analysis sensitivity, despite fact that doing so would provide insights into patterns sensitivity among...
Historical (phylogenetic) biogeography and community ecology were once integrated as part of the broader study organismal diversity, but in recent decades have become largely separate disciplines. This is unfortunate because many patterns studied by ecologists may originate through processes historical biogeographers vice versa. In this study, we explore causes a geographic pattern structure (habitat use) emydid turtle assemblages eastern North America, with more semi-terrestrial species...
Abstract Aim To explore spatial patterns of helminth parasite diversity, and to investigate three main macroecological – (a) latitude–diversity relationships, (b) positive scaling between host (c) species–area relationships using a largely underutilized global database occurrence records. Location Global. Methods We examined the London Natural History Museum’s collection records, consisting over 18,000 unique species 27,000 distributed across 350 distinct terrestrial aquatic localities....
Variation in host responses to pathogens can have cascading effects on populations and communities when some individuals or groups of display disproportionate vulnerability infection differ their competence transmit infection. The fungal pathogen, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) has been detected almost 700 different amphibian species is implicated numerous global population declines. Identifying key hosts the amphibian-Bd system–those who are at greatest risk pose for others–is...
Nightlights (NTL) have been widely used as a proxy for economic activity, despite known limitations in accuracy and comparability, particularly with outdated Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) data. The emergence of newer more precise Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) data offers potential, yet challenges persist due to temporal spatial disparities between the two datasets. Addressing this, we employ novel harmonized NTL dataset (VIIRS + DMSP), which provides...
The frequency of infectious disease outbreaks and pandemics is rising, demanding an understanding their drivers. Common wisdom suggests that increases in outbreak are driven by socioeconomic factors such as globalization urbanization, yet, the majority caused zoonotic pathogens can be transmitted from animals to humans, suggesting important role ecological environmental Previous studies drivers have also failed quantify differences between major classes pathogens, bacterial viral pathogens....