5ANNUAL REPORT: June 1, 2008 – May 31, 2009
(i.e., Summer 2008, AY 2008-2009)
DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND FOREST BIOLOGY
SUNY-ESF
NAME :
I. INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES
1. Regular Course Offerings
Credit No. No. of Lab.
Course No. Title Hrs. Students Sections
SUMMER:
FALL: EFB 796 Infectious Disease in Wildlife Populations 3 credits 4 students (lab in class)
EFB 797 Wildlife Seminar: The Ecological Detective 1 credit 10 students with Jacqui Frair
EFB 797 Adaptive Peaks 1 credit 10 students
SPRING: EFB 311 Principles of Evolution with Martin Schlaepfer
EFB 797 Adaptive Peaks with Melissa Fierke
2. Non-Scheduled Course Offerings (e.g., 496, 899, 999)
Course No. Title
Credit
Hrs.
3 credits 177 students
1 credit 10 students
No.
Students
3. Continuing Education and Extension (short courses, workshops, etc.)
4. Guest Lecture Activities
Course No. Title
EFB202 Environmental monitoring & biodiversity (Statistics)
EFB 491 Wildlife Ecology & Management Practicum
EFB 103 General Biology II: Cell Biology & Genetics
II. STUDENT ADVISING
No. of Lectures
2 days, 2 groups
1 lecture
1 lecture

A. Number of undergraduates for whom you are the student’s official advisor _20_ and unofficial advisor _0_
B. Graduate Students: (Name, degree sought, starting date, month & year; if a degree was completed, please give date and full citation for the thesis or dissertation).
MAJOR PROFESSOR
CO-MAJOR PROFESSOR
MEMBER, STEERING COMMITTEE (other than those listed above)
David Williams, PhD, started fall 2006
Katie Woodside, MS, started fall 2006, finished January 2009, “Development and Application of Models
Predicting Young of the Year Muskellunge Presence and Abundance from Nursery Habitat
Features.”
Robin Holevinski, PhD, started summer 2007.
Kevin Shoemaker, PhD, started fall 2007.
CHAIRMAN OR READER ON THESIS EXAMS, ETC.
C.J. Hazel, PhD, started ???. (examiner)
III. RESEARCH COMPLETED OR UNDERWAY
A. Departmental Research (unsupported, boot-legged; title - % time spent)
Amphibian disease surveillance in NYS, with many collaborators – 10%
Modeling tick aggregation on mice, with Justin Calabrese, Center for Environmental Research,
Leipzig, Germany – 5%
The seasonal life history of ticks and Lyme disease transmission, with Dan Salkeld, UC Berkley –
2%
B. 1. Grant-supported Research (source, subject, amount - total award and current year, award period starting and ending dates; list graduate research assistants supported by each grant)
NIH R03, Overwintering Mortality of Nymphal Ixodes scapularis , Lyme Disease Vector, in a
Changing Climate, $162,507. PI: Richard S. Ostfeld (CIES); coPIs: Jesse Brunner (SUNY-
ESF) and Mary Killilea (CIES). 22 May 2009 – 30 April 2011.
SUNY-ESF Seed grant: Fluorescent frogs and Viruses: Developing Novel Methods for Studying
Pathogen Transmission, $8000, March 2009 – March 2010.

EPA-G2007-STAR-F1, Mechanisms Linking Host Biodiversity to Lyme Disease Risk, $750,000.
PI: Richard S. Ostfeld (Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies); coPIs: Felicia Keesing (Bard
College), Charles Canham (CIES), Jesse Brunner (SUNY-ESF / CIES), and Mary Killilea
(CIES). 1 May 2008 – 30 April 2011
NSF COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: The Ecology of Anaplasma phagocytophilum :
Reservoirs, Risk, and Incidence, $1,971,613. PI: Felicia Keesing (Bard College), Mike
Tibbetts (Bard), Ken Schmidt (Texas Tech), Kathleen LoGiudice (Union College), Rick
Ostfeld (CIES), and Jesse Brunner (SUNY-ESF / CIES). 1 September 2008 – 31 August
2013.
2. Research Proposals pending (as in B.1., above)
NSF EF, Fear, Food, and Infections: Linking Host Behavior to Disease Transmission in the
Ranavirus-Salamander System, $303,722. PI: Jesse Brunner. Anticipated: 15 July 2009 – 14
July 2011.
CDC UO1, Climate Change and Vector-Borne Disease: Predicting the Spread of Blacklegged
Ticks and Lyme disease, $835,022. PI: Jesse Brunner; coPIs: Richard S. Ostfeld (CIES) and
Justin Calabrese (UFZ, Leipzig, Germany). Three years.
IV. PUBLICATIONS (Full bibliographic citation, i.e., do not use "with Jones," or "Jones, et al."; please list only publications published, in press, or actually submitted during this reporting period --- do not list manuscripts in preparation ).
A. Refereed Publications
Brunner, J. L., and R. S. Ostfeld. 2008. Multiple causes of variable tick burdens on small-mammal hosts. Ecology 89:2259-2272.
Greer, A. L., J. L. Brunner, and J. P. Collins. 2009 in press . Spatial and temporal patterns of
Ambystoma tigrinum virus (ATV) prevalence in tiger salamanders ( Ambystoma tigrinum nebulosum ). Diseases of Aquatic Organisms 85
Brunner, J. L., and J. P. Collins. 2009 in review . Testing the trade-off theory of the evolution of parasite virulence. Evolutionary Ecology Research
Greer, A.L., D. M. Schock, J. L. Brunner, R. A. Johnson, A. M. Picco, S. D. Cashins, R. A. Alford, L.
F. Skerratt, and J. P. Collins. 2009 in review. Guidelines for the safe use of disposable gloves with amphibian larvae in light of pathogens and possible toxic effects. Herpetological Review
B. Non-refereed Publications
Hemmingway, V., J. Brunner, L. Berger, and R. Speare. 2009 in press . Viral and bacterial diseases of amphibians. in Heatwole, H., and J. W. Wilkinson, editor. Amphibian decline:
Diseases, parasites, maladies, and pollution. Surrey Beatty Pty. Ltd., Baulkham Hills, NSW,
Australia.

C. Papers Presented at Science Meetings (give title, date, occasion, and location)
Brunner, J.L. and R.S. Ostfeld. An experimental examination of the strength of interspecific interactions in small mammal communities in forest of the Northeast. Ecological Society of
America, Milwaukee, WI. August 2008.
Brunner, J.L. Very preliminary update on ranaviruses in New York State. Emerging Wildlife
Diseases: Threats to Amphibian Biodiversity Annual Meeting. Tempe, AZ November 2008.
D. Public Service Presentations (lectures, seminars, etc. to and for the public; give group or occasion, date(s), and attendance)
Brunner, J.L. Scaling up disease ecology from individuals to landscapes. Department of Biology,
University of North Carolina Greensboro, NC. February 2009
V. PUBLIC SERVICE
A. Funded Service (include consulting activities)
1. Government Agencies (Federal, State, Local):
2. Industrial and Commercial Groups, etc.
B. Unfunded Service to Governmental Agencies, Public Interest Groups, etc.
VI. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
A. Professional Honors and Awards (for teaching, research, outreach, etc.)
B. 1. Activities in Professional Organizations (offices held, service as chairman, member, participant or consultant)
2. Professional Society Membership
Ecological Society of America
Entomological Society of America
American Society of Naturalists
Wildlife Disease Association
3. Other Professional Activities a. Editorial activity

Journal (s)
Journal of Herpetology
Other (books, symposia, etc.) b. Reviewer
Journal(s)
Ecology
Journal of Herpetology
Responsibility
Associate editor for Ranavirus papers
No. of manuscripts
1
1
Agency
National Science Foundation
No. of proposals
1
Other c. Participation (workshops, symposia, etc.)
Name of workshop, etc. Date
National Science Foundation workshop January 2009
C. Further Education/Re-training Undertaken, Leaves, Workshops, etc.
Place
Binghamton University
D. Foreign Travel (Where, When, Purpose)
VII. ADMINISTRATIVE AND SERVICE RESPONSIBILITIES (include committee participation)
A. Department-level
Building advisory committee, member
Burgess award committee, member
B. College-level
Institutional animal care and use committee, chair
C. University-wide, including Research Foundation
VIII. SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACTIVITIES AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS DURING THIS
REPORTING PERIOD, ESPECIALLY THOSE MOST NOTEWORTHY AND RELATIVE TO THE
COLLEGE’S AND DEPARTMENT’S MISSION. One paragraph on each of the following would be most helpful: this past year, what have you done for our students, department/college, and self professionally? NOTE: The

information in this section (along with the supporting specific information elsewhere in this report) should be your strongest case for being considered for a discretionary raise, which I’ll continue to award based on your contributions to the department and college this reporting period.
Students: This was the first year that I was really involved in teaching beyond seminars and short courses. In the fall I taught two new graduate-level courses—one in Wildlife Disease Ecology and one, called The Ecological Detective, in fitting models to data (with Jacqui Frair). Both classes were very interactive, hands on, and required a lot of intellectual effort and hard work from the students, but both courses received high praise from the students. I had a lot of fun in both courses and I am quite proud of the degree of sophistication the students achieved by the end of the semester. In the spring I taught the second half (following Martin Schlaepfer) of EFB 311, Principles of Evolution, which was my first large lecture course. While it was sometimes overwhelming (too often I was just barely ready for class), it was always rewarding. I love interacting with our undergraduate students in and out of class, and really enjoyed changing the way they think about the world (the subject has a way of doing that!). I also coordinated the Adaptive Peaks seminar series during the fall and again in the spring with Melissa Fierke, bringing in a number of terrific speakers; joined several graduate student committees, which has been really interesting and illuminating; and mentored a cadre of undergraduate volunteers in laboratory in disease ecology—one volunteer from last summer, just reported that she is entering a masters program in immunology and infectious disease! Formally and informally, as teacher, mentor, resource, and friend, I am happy to be part of our students’ experience at ESF.
Department/College: This was also an interesting year in terms of learning about and contributing to the department and college. Advising 20+ wildlife majors and helping revise the wildlife curriculum and establish an assessment plan,
I feel I have a much better sense of our curriculum, our students’ experience, and where I can help advance the departmental goals. This year I also became the chair of the IACUC committee, overseeing the care and use of animals in research and education at ESF. This has provided a unique opportunity to contribute to the mission of the school
(research, teaching, and outreach) while learning about, and often helping refine, the research going on at ESF.
Self professional: I am very pleased to have gotten my lab up and running to the point where I am able to do diagnostic work for individuals and agencies now sending me amphibian samples from around the state. This has led to new connections, several budding collaborations, and a soon-to-be submitted manuscript. It has also helped me better understand the lay of the land, both geographically and metaphorically, in terms of people and agencies. I expect that my new position as an associate editor at Herpetological Review in charge of ranavirus reports will also prove helpful for my professional development and for my research agenda (e.g., I am interested in establishing the distribution and patterns of relatedness of ranaviruses around the world). I am also rather proud to have submitted three significant grants to national funding agencies, two of which were recently funded (NIH) or recommended for funding (NSF). The third is pending review (CDC). Two of these are collaborative grants on climate change and tick-borne disease (NIH &
CDC); the other, to the NSF, was my first large, single-investigator proposal. It focuses on host behavior and disease transmission in a salamander larva-virus system; a new and I expect interesting and fruitful line of research. I was also fortunate to receive an ESF Seed grant for this new research. Each of these projects and collaboration have been made possible by an increasing level of quantitative sophistication, which I attribute to a workshop in Bayesian methods in ecology, teaching from the Ecological Detective, and my collaborating with a very quantitative friend in Germany. In short, it feels that a number of pieces of the professional puzzle are coming together.
IX. A. FUTURE PLANS, AMBITIONS, AND POTENTIAL CONTRIBUTIONS FOR YOUR OWN
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE ENHANCEMENT OF THE PROGRAM IN
ENVIRONMENTAL AND FOREST BIOLOGY (brief summary)

B. PROJECTED ACTIVITIES FOR NEXT YEAR
1. Summer 2009 a. Course(s) to be offered
Statistics section of EFB 202 (one section, one day) b. Proposed research activity
Pilot research (funded by seed grant) into tracking host behavior and contacts using fluorescent marks and an automated camera system (with an undergraduate student and collaborators at Vassar College)
Research into the reservoir competence for the agents of Lyme disease and
Anaplasmosis in meso mammals (with collaborators at the Cary Institute, Bard
College, and Union College)
Experimental manipulations of small mammal communities to test the “dilution effect” of biodiversity on tick-borne disease risk (with collaborators at the Cary
Institute, Bard College, and Union College) c. University, professional society, and public service
Will attend Ecological Society of America meeting in Albuequerque
IACUC committee
Assoc. Editor at Herpetological Review
2. Fall Semester 2009
a. Course(s) to be offered
EFB 797 Emerging Diseases of Fish & Wildlife, 3 credits with Chris Whipps
EFB 797 Tools of the Ecological Detective, 3 credits with Jacqui Frair b. Proposed research activity
Analyzing data from summer projects
Begin analyzing sequence data from ranavirus isolates for phylogenetic study
Deploy survey of veterinarians to track black-legged tick spread c. University, Professional society, and public service
Building advisory committee
IACUC committee
Assoc. Editor at Herpetological Review
Two MS and one MPS students joining my lab!
3. Spring Semester 2010 a. Course(s) to be offered
EFB 311 Principles of Evolution, 3 credits with Martin Schlaepfer

Hope to develop and offer a weekend workshop on survival analysis or related topic b. Proposed research activity
Continue projects c. University, professional society, and public service
Burgess award committee
Building advisory committee
IACUC committee
Assoc. Editor at Herpetological Review