Disease and Parasite Ecology 
 

Human and wildlife diseases are emerging at an unprecedented rate (Daszak et al. 2000, Wolfe et al. 2007).  Since this is primarily due to changes in the ecology of hosts and parasites (Schrag and Wiener 1995), understanding the environmental factors driving these changes will be essential to designing effective control strategies. Environmental change can have complex effects on parasite transmission that depend on the specific interactions among hosts, parasites, and biotic and abiotic conditions. Consequently, we have been studying the ecology of hosts and parasites, and the dependence of these interactions on biotic and abiotic conditions. We have become particularly interested in the effects of pollution, climate, landscape patterns, and community composition on disease risk in amphibians.

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Sample Publications

Rumschlag, S.L., Halstead, N.T., Hoverman, J.T., Raffel, T.R., Carrick, H.J., Hudson, P.J., Rohr, J.R. 2019. Effects of pesticides on exposure and susceptibility to parasites can be generalized to pesticide class and type in aquatic communities. Ecology Letters 22: 962-972 Cover article 

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Cohen, J.M., McMahon, T.A., Ramsay, C., Roznik, E.A., Sauer, E.L., Bessler, S., Civitello, D.J., Delius, B.K., Halstead, N.T., Knutie, S.A., Nguyen, K., Ortega, C.N., Sears, B., Venesky, M.D., Young, S., Rohr, J.R. 2019. Impacts of thermal mismatches on chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis prevalence are moderated by life stage, body size, elevation and latitude. Ecology Letters 22: 817-825

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Cohen, J.M., Civitello, D.J., Venesky, M.D., McMahon, T.A., Rohr, J.R. 2019. An interaction between climate change and infectious disease drove widespread amphibian declines. Global Change Biology. 25: 927–937

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Rumschlag, S.L., Rohr, J.R. 2018. The influence of pesticide use on amphibian chytrid fungal infections varies with host life stage. Global Ecology and Biogeography 27: 1277-1287

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Civitello, D.J., Allman, B.E., Morozumi, C., Rohr, J.R. 2018. Assessing the direct and indirect effects of food provisioning and nutrient enrichment on wildlife infectious disease dynamics. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B, 373: 20170101.

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Stutz, W.E., Blaustein, A.R., Briggs, C.J., Hoverman, J.T., Rohr, J.R., Johnson, P.T.J. 2018. Using multi-response models to investigate pathogen coinfections across scales: insights from emerging diseases of amphibians. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 9: 1109-1120.

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Knutie, S.A., Shea, L.A., , Kupselaitis, M., Wilkinson, C.L.§, Kohl, K.D., Rohr, J.R. 2017. Early-life diet affects host microbiota and later-life defenses against parasites in frogs. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 57(4), 732-742.

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Jayawardena, U.A., Rohr, J.R., Amerasinghe, P.H., Navaratne, A.N., Rajakaruna, R.S. 2017. Effects of agrochemicals on disease severity of Acanthostomum burminis infections (Digenea: Trematoda) in the Asian common toad, Duttaphrynus melanostictus. BMC Zoology, 2, 13.

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Knutie, S.A., Wilkinson, C.L., Kohl, K.D., Rohr, J.R. 2017. Early-life disruption of amphibian microbiota decreases later-life resistance to parasites. Nature Communications 8, 86.

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Knutie, S.A., Wilkinson, C.L., Wu, Q.C., Ortega, C.N., Rohr, J.R. 2017. Host resistance and tolerance of parasitic gut worms depend on resource availability. Oecologia 183 (4), 1031-1040.

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McMahon, T.A., Rohr, J.R., Bernal, X.E. 2017. Light and noise pollution interact to disrupt interspecific interactions. Ecology. 98: 1290–1299

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Cohen, J., Venesky, M., Sauer, E., Civitello, D., McMahon, T.†, Roznik, B., Rohr, J. 2017. The thermal mismatch hypothesis explains host susceptibility to an emerging infectious disease. Ecology Letters, 20 (2), 184-193.

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Taylor, R.A., Mordecai, E.A., Gilligan, C.A., Rohr, J.R., Johnson, L.R. 2016. Mathematical models are a powerful method to understand and control the spread of Huanglongbing. PeerJ, 4, e2642

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Cohen, J., Civitello, D., Brace, A., Feichtinger, E., Ortega, N., Richardson, J., Sauer, E., Rohr, J. 2016. Spatial scale modulates the strength of ecological processes driving disease distributions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113, E3359-E3364.(PDF+Supplement)

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Jayawardena, U.A., Rohr, J.R., Navaratne, A.N., Amerasinghe, P.H., Rajakaruna, R.S. 2016. Combined effects of pesticides and trematode infections on the hourglass tree frog Polypedates cruciger. EcoHealth 13: 111-122

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Buck, J.C., Rohr, J.R., Blaustein, A.R. 2016. Effects of nutrient supplementation on host-pathogen dynamics of the amphibian chytrid fungus: a community approach. Freshwater Biology, 61, 110-120.

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Civitello, D.J., Cohen, J., Fatima, H., Halstead, N.T., Liriano, J., McMahon, T.A., Ortega, C.N., Sauer, E., Sehgal, T., Young, S., Rohr, J.R. 2015. Biodiversity inhibits parasites: broad evidence for the dilution effect. Proceedings of the National Academy of the United States of America 112: 8667–8671 (showcased by commentaries in PNAS and Science, double star recommendation by Faculty 1000, Altmetric score of 177, 99th percentile)

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Sears, B.F., Snyder, P.W., Rohr, J.R. 2015. Host life-history and host-parasite syntopy predict behavioral resistance and tolerance to trematode parasites. Journal of Animal Ecology 84:625-636 (Runner-up for best student paper award 2015 from the Disease Ecology Section of the Ecological Society of America)

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McMahon, T.A., Sears, B.F., Venesky, M.D., Brown, J.M., Deutsch, K., Halstead, N.T., Lentz, G., Tenouri, N., Young, S., Civitello, D.J., Ortega, N., Fites, J.S., Reinert, L.K., Rollins-Smith, L.A., Raffel, T.R., Rohr, J.R. 2014. Amphibians acquire resistance to live and dead fungus overcoming fungal immunosuppression. Nature 511:224-227 (cover photo and featured cover story; Altmetric score of 262, 99th percentile)

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Venesky, M.D., Liu, X., Sauer, E., Rohr, J.R. 2014. Linking manipulative experiments to field data to test the dilution effect. Journal of Animal Ecology 83:557-565

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Rohr, J.R., Raffel, T.R., Halstead, N.T., McMahon, T.A., Johnson, S.A., Boughton, R.K., Martin, L.B. 2013. Early-life exposure to an herbicide has enduring effects on pathogen-induced mortality. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 280:20131502 (Altmetric score of 71)

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Sears, B.F., Snyder, P.W., Rohr, J.R. 2013. Infection deflection: hosts control parasite location with behavior to improve tolerance. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 280: 20130759

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Liu, X., Rohr, J.R., Li, Y. 2013. Climate, vegetation, introduced hosts and trade shape a global wildlife pandemic. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 280: 20122506 double star recommendation by Faculty 1000

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Raffel, T.R., Romansic, J.M., Halstead, N.T., McMahon, T.A., Venesky, M.D., Rohr, J.R.2013. Disease and thermal acclimation in a more variable and unpredictable climate. Nature Climate Change 3: 146-151 (featured in News and Views, article by Ross Alford: http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v3/n2/full/nclimate1812.html; Altmetric score of 36, 97th percentile)

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Koprivnikar, J., Marcogliese, D.J., Rohr, J.R., Orlofske, S.A., Raffel, T.R., Johnson, P.T.J. 2012. Macroparasite infections of amphibians: What can they tell us? EcoHealth 9: 342-360

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Venesky, M.D., Mendelson, J.R., Sears, B.F., Stiling, P.D., Rohr, J.R. 2012. Selecting for tolerance against pathogens and herbivores to enhance the success of reintroduction and translocation programs. Conservation Biology 26: 586-592

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Johnson, P.T.J., Rohr, J.R., Hoverman, J.T. Kellermanns, E., Bowerman, J., Lunde, K.B. 2012. Host life history explains interspecific variation in disease risk. Ecology Letters 15: 235-242

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Sears, B.F.*, Rohr, J.R., Allen, J.E., Martin, L.B. 2011. The economy of inflammation: when is less more? Trends in Parasitology. 27: 382-387

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Rohr, J.R., Dobson, A.P., Johnson, P.T.J., Kilpatrick, A.M., Paull, S.H., Raffel, T.R.†, Ruiz-Moreno, D., Thomas, M.B. 2011. Frontiers in climate change-disease research. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 26: 270-277

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Romansic, J.M.†, Johnson, P.T.J., Searle, C.L., Johnson, J.E., Tunstall, T., Han, B.A., Rohr, J.R., Blaustein, A.R. 2011. Individual and combined effects of multiple pathogens on Pacific treefrogs. Oecologia. 166: 1029-1041

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Schotthoefer, A.M., Rohr, J.R., Cole, R.A., Koehler, A.V., Johnson, C.M., Johnson, L.B., Beasley, V.R. 2011. Effects of wetland and landscape variables on parasite communities of Rana pipiens: links to anthropogenic changes. Ecological Applications. 24: 1257-1271

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Raffel, T.R.†, Lloyd-Smith, J.O.†, Sessions, S.K., Hudson, P.J., Rohr, J.R. 2011. Does the early frog catch the worm? Disentangling potential drivers of a parasite age-intensity relationship in tadpoles. Oecologia. 165: 1031-1042

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Raffel, T.R.†, Michel, P.J. §, Sites, E.W. §, Rohr, J.R. 2010. Does temperature drive chytrid infections in newt populations? Associations with leaf litter, vegetation and shade. Ecohealth. 7: 526-536

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Staley, Z.*, Rohr, J.R., Harwood, V.J. 2010. The effect of agrochemicals on indicator bacteria densities in outdoor mesocosms. Environmental Microbiology. 12: 3150-3158

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Raffel, T.R. †, Johnson, P.T.J., Paull, S.H. *, Rohr, J.R. 2010. Symposium 16, Towards a general theory for how climate change will affect infectious disease. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. 91: 467-473

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Martin, L.B., Hopkins, W.A., Mydlarz, L.D., Rohr, J.R. 2010. The effects of anthropogenic global change on immune functions and disease resistance. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences: The Year in Ecology and Conservation Biology. 1195: 129-148

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Rohr, J.R., Raffel, T.R.†, Hall, C.§ 2010. Developmental variation in resistance and tolerance in a multi-host-parasite system. Functional Ecology. 24: 1110-1121

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Raffel, T.R.†, Hoverman, J.T.†, Halstead, N.T., Michel, P.§, Rohr, J.R. 2010. Parasitism in a community context: Trait-mediated interactions with competition and predation. Ecology. 91: 1900-1907

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Rohr, J.R., Raffel, T.R.† 2010. Linking global climate and temperature variability to widespread amphibian declines putatively caused by disease. PNAS. 107: 8269-8274

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Rohr, J.R., Raffel, T.R.†, Sessions, S.K. 2009. Digenetic trematodes and their relationship to amphibian declines and deformities. In: Amphibian Biology. vol. 8. Amphibian Decline: Diseases, Parasites, Maladies, and Pollution. series editor Heatwole, H. & Wilkinson, J.W. Surrey Beatty & Sons, Chipping Norton, NSW, Australia, pp 3067-3088

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Rohr, J.R., Swan, A., Raffel, T.R., Hudson, P.J. 2009. Parasites, info-disruption, and the ecology of fear. Oecologia. 159: 447-454

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Raffel, T.R., Le Gros, R.J., Love, B.C., Rohr, J.R., Hudson, P.J. 2009. Parasite age-intensity relationships in red-spotted newts: does immune memory influence salamander disease dynamics? International Journal for Parasitology. 39: 231-241

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Rohr, J.R., Raffel, T.R., Romansic, J., McCallum, H., Hudson, P.J. 2008. Evaluating the links between climate, disease spread, and amphibian declines. PNAS. 45: 17436-17441

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Rohr, J.R., Schoetthofer, A.M., Raffel, T.R., Carrick, H.J., Halstead, N., Hoverman, J.T., Johnson, C.M., Johnson, L.B., Lieske, C., Piwoni, M.D., Schoff, P.K., Beasley, V.R. 2008. Agrochemicals increase trematode infections in a declining amphibian species. Nature. 455: 1235-1239

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Raffel, T.R., Martin, L.B., Rohr, J.R. 2008. Parasites as predators: unifying natural enemy ecology. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 23: 610-618 (invited submission)

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Rohr, J.R., Raffel, T.R., Sessions, S.K., Hudson, P.J. 2008. Understanding the net effects of pesticides on amphibian trematode infections. Ecological Applications. 18: 1743-1753

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Raffel, T.R., Rohr, J.R., Kiesecker, J.M., Hudson, P.J. 2006. Negative effects of changing temperature on amphibian immunity under field conditions. Functional Ecology. 20: 819-828.

Dobson, A.P, Cattadori, I. Holt, R.D., Ostfeld, R.S., Keesing, F., Krichbaum, K., Rohr, J.R., Perkins, S.E., Hudson, P.J. 2006. Sacred cows and sympathetic squirrels: The importance of biological diversity to human health. PLoS Medicine. 3: 714-718.

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For a full list of publications, please see the Publications page on this website.