
Felipe DargentUniversity of Ottawa · Department of Biology
Felipe Dargent
PhD
About
23
Publications
3,115
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253
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Introduction
My current research in evolutionary ecology focuses on assessing the rate and nature of anti-parasite defense evolution under different environmental regimes, through field and lab assays.
www.felipedargent.com
Additional affiliations
September 2018 - present
September 2017 - August 2018
April 2017 - present
Education
September 2008 - October 2014
March 2001 - December 2006
Publications
Publications (23)
The patterns and mechanisms by which biological diversity is associated with parasite infection risk are important to study because of their potential implications for wildlife population’s conservation and management. Almost all research in this area has focused on host species diversity and has neglected parasite diversity, despite evidence that...
We evaluated the extent to which males and females evolve along similar or different trajectories in response to the same environmental shift. Specifically, we used replicate experimental introductions in nature to consider how release from a key parasite (Gyrodactylus) generates similar or different defence evolution in male vs. female guppies (Po...
Parasites are detrimental to host fitness and therefore should strongly select for host defence mechanisms. Yet, hosts vary considerably in their observed parasite loads. One notable source of inter-individual variation in parasitism is host sex. Such variation could be caused by the immunomodulatory effects of gonadal steroids. Here we assess the...
A reduction in the strength of selection is expected to cause the evolution of reduced trait expression. Elimination of a parasite should thus cause the evolution of reduced resistance to that parasite. To test this prediction in nature, we studied the fourth- and eighth-generation descendants of guppies (Poecilia reticulata) introduced into four n...
Predation and parasitism are two of the most important sources of mortality in nature. By forming groups, individuals can gain protection against predators but may increase their risk of being infected with contagious parasites. Animals might resolve this conflict by forming mixed-species groups thereby reducing the costs associated with parasites...
Bioavailable strontium isotope ratios (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) distribution across the landscape mainly follow the underlying lithology, making ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr baseline maps (isoscapes) powerful tools for provenance studies. ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr has already been used in Eastern Canada (EC) to track food and human remains origins, or to reconstruct animal mobility. While bioavai...
Eastern spruce budworm moth (Choristoneura fumiferana (Clem.)) mass outbreaks have widespread economic and ecological consequences. A key explanation for the large-scale spread and synchronization of these outbreaks is the long-distance dispersal (up to 450 km) of moths from hotspots (high-density populations) to lower-density areas. These events h...
Anthropogenic activities are exposing insects to elevated levels of toxic metals and are altering the bioavailability of essential metals. Metals and metal isotopes have also become promising tools for the geolocation of migratory insects. Understanding the pathways of metal incorporation in insect tissues is thus important for assessing the role o...
Anthropogenic activities are exposing insects to abnormal levels of toxic metals, with unknown implications for migratory insects. Simultaneously, metals and metal isotopes have become promising tools for the geolocation of migratory insects. Furthering our understanding of metal cycling in insect tissues is essential, both for the development of m...
Eastern spruce budworm moth ( Choristoneura fumiferana (Clem.)) mass outbreaks have widespread economic and ecological consequences. A key explanation for the large-scale spread and synchronization of these outbreaks is the long-distance dispersal (up to 450km) of moths from hotspots (high-density populations) to lower-density areas. These events h...
Every year monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus (Linnaeus, 1758)) from the eastern North American population migrate from Mexico to southern Canada in the spring. This northward migration has been shown to reduce monarch infection with the host-specific parasite Ophryocystis elektroscirrha McLaughlin and Myers, 1970 (OE); yet, the prevalence of OE...
Parasites and pathogens (hereafter parasites) commonly challenge organisms, but the extent to which their infections are physiologically stressful to hosts remains unclear. Importantly, vertebrate hormones, glucocorticoids (GCs), have been reported to increase, decrease or show no alterations stemming from infections, challenging the generality of...
Progress toward local adaptation is expected to be enhanced when divergent selection is multidimensional, because many simultaneous sources of selection can increase the total strength of selection and enhance the number of independent traits under selection. Yet, whether local adaptation ensues from multidimensional selection also depends on its p...
Studies generally have neglected parasite-centric views in explorations of whether the oft-seen patterns of parasite aggregation are adaptive. Using simulation models, we explored the effects of aggregation on coinfection with hetero- or conspecific parasite species characterized by different mean abundances. Increasing aggregation increased the pr...
Gynogenetic organisms are asexual females of one species that require sperm from males of another species to initiate reproduction (but except in rare instances of ‘paternal leakage’, those sperm do not contribute to the genetic make-up of the gynogens’ offspring). Gynogenetic organisms seem to combine disadvantages of both sexual and asexual repro...
In Dargent et al . [[1][1]], we reported the evolution of increased resistance in populations of wild female guppies after the removal of an ectoparasite ( Gyrodactylus turnbulli ) and discussed possible mechanisms for this unexpected outcome. In her comment, Stephenson proposes two additional
Background/Question/Methods It is commonly assumed that reducing the strength of selection favoring a particular trait should cause the evolution of reduced expression of that trait. We tested this prediction in the wild by assessing evolution of the trait “resistance against parasites.” Guppies (Poecilia reticulata) from a Trinidadian stream were...
Identifying the environmental factors responsible for the formation of a species' distribution limit is challenging because organisms interact in complex ways with their environments. However, the use of statistical niche models in combination with the analysis of phenotypic variation along environmental gradients can help to reduce such complexity...
SUMMARY Understanding disease transmission is important to species management and human health. Host body condition, nutrition and disease susceptibility interact in a complex manner, and while the individual effects of these variables are well known, our understanding of how they interact and translate to population dynamics is limited. Our object...
Studies of phenotypic variation in nature often consider only a single potential selective agent. In such cases, it remains an open question as to whether variation attributed to that single measured agent might be influenced by some other unmeasured agent. Previous research has shown that phenotypic variation in the Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia ret...
Background/Question/Methods Although individuals tend to prefer forming groups with conspecifics, mixed-species groups occur in various taxa and are thought to be adaptive. The two main explanations proposed for the formation of mixed-species groups are increased defense against predators through dilution of individual risk and increased resource a...