Manja Holland Hometown: Ann Arbor, MI Advisor: David Skelly

Emerging disease has been recognized as a critical challenge for environmental scientists. Emerging wildlife diseases are of concern both from conservation and human health perspectives as many emerging wildlife diseases are zoonotic (i.e., transferred naturally between wildlife and humans). Urbanization and other forms of anthropogenic change have been linked with wildlife disease emergence, but the mechanisms underlying these patterns remain unknown in most cases. Recent work suggests that infection of Rana clamitans (green frogs) by echinostomes, a group of parasitic trematodes, is greater in urban as compared to rural wetlands in Northeastern Connecticut. Echinostomes are one of the most widespread macroparasites in amphibians in North America, but the impact of echinostomes on amphibians in nature is not known. I will examine the impact of echinostome infection on green frog survival, growth and development across an urbanization gradient and will investigate the mechanism underlying the emergence of echinostome infection in green frogs in urban wetlands through observational studies, field experiments, laboratory experiments, and molecular and cellular immunological assays. Specifically, this project will aid in the elucidation of the impact of echinostomes on amphibians. In addition, this work is aimed at improving understanding of the mechanisms by which diseases can emerge as a result of urbanization.