Poster Presentation
Does Fire Affect Parasitism in Midwestern White-footed Mice?
Janie Miller
Faculty Mentor: Shawn Meagher
Biology
Parasites are organisms that live either on or inside a host. Parasites can reduce individual host reproduction or survival, and as a result, have important impacts on host population size. In order to understand how parasites affect host individuals and populations, we must determine what regulates parasite infection levels. Environmental factors can have important effects on levels of parasitism. In the external environment, factors such as temperature and humidity affect egg survival: hot, dry environments can kill eggs. Temperature increases, and humidity decreases, when forest cover is reduced. A common, major cause of reduced forest cover is fire, but with respect to parasitism, there is little information gathered on how the two are related. A handful of studies have examined the effects of fire on parasitism. From these studies, there is no clear correlation between parasitism and fire. My goal is to collect data to test for a general pattern in a different location, a Midwestern oak forest, to see if fire affects parasite abundance in white-footed mice ( Peromyscus leucopus ). White-footed mice will be trapped at Kibbe Life Science Station using traps in burned and unburned plots. Mice will be euthanized and dissected. Parasites will be stored in vials and preserved. We will identify all external parasites, as well as internal parasites because both types have environmental stages that can be negatively impacted by fire. GLMs will be used to determine whether mouse sex, size, or forest fire affect the abundance of external, internal or both types of parasites.