Disease Ecology: Community Structure and Pathogen Dynamics

Disease Ecology highlights exciting advances in theoretical and empirical research towards understanding the importance of community structure in the emergence of infectious diseases. The chapters in this book illustrate aspects of community ecology that influence pathogen transmission rates and disease dynamics in a wide variety of study systems. The innovative studies presented here communicate a clear message: studies of epidemiology can be approached from the perspective of community ecology, and students of community ecology can contribute significantly to epidemiology.

Dr Sharon K. Collinge's research is based primarily in grassland ecosystems of the American west, integrating theories and methods of ecology and conservation to examine how changing landscapes affect interactions among native species. Her research centres on how habitat loss and fragmentation influence species interactions, particularly those involving disease dynamics in grassland mammals. Dr Collinge received her PhD from Harvard University in landscape ecology in 1995 and has been on the faculty of the University of Colorado-Boulder since 1998. Dr Chris Ray studies the demographic and genetic dynamics of spatially structured populations. Her research includes the development and application of predictive models, and the use of long-term field studies to test theory in population biology. Dr Ray received her PhD from the University of California-Davis in population biology in 1997, has worked on threatened and endangered species management projects for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and has been a research associate at the University of Colorado-Boulder since 2001.