Speaker:
Dr. Alyssa Gehman, Adjunct Faculty Member, Hakai Institute
Parasites and pathogens are ubiquitous and can alter host response to environmental stressors, such as host thermal tolerance levels. This talk will explore how parasites and pathogens interact with marine crabs, hermit crabs and sea stars. These changes at the species-interaction level can lead to changes at the population, community and ecosystem level.
Biography
Alyssa-Lois Gehman is a PI at the Hakai Institute and Adjunct Professor in the IOF at the University of British Columbia, whose current research focuses on marine disease ecology. Alyssa’s research explores how host-parasite interactions shape or are shaped by ecological communities and their environment. Some current projects in Alyssa’s group focus on sea star wasting disease, rhizophalan infection in hermit crabs and integrating symbionts into biodiversity research. She received her PhD from the Odum School of Ecology at the University of Georgia in 2016 and her M.S. degree from Western Washington University in 2008.