Victor Frankel- Ph.D.
- Fellow at Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Victor Frankel
- Ph.D.
- Fellow at Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
About
8
Publications
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Introduction
My research focuses on understanding how biodiversity loss affects host-parasite interactions and disease dynamics in wildlife, commercially valuable species, and humans. The invasion of non-native species in freshwater systems can have broad impacts on biodiversity of free-living species at multiple trophic levels, but less is known about how these cascading effects on free-living species shape host-parasite interactions and infectious processes. To date, most of my research has focused on the effects of apex predators in tropical lakes on parasite dynamics, but new projects in Alaska will provide important comparisons in conceptually similar systems at high latitudes. I look forward to connecting with new collaborators!
Current institution
Publications
Publications (8)
Wild populations must continuously adapt to environmental changes or they risk extinction. Such adaptations can be measured as phenotypic rates of change and can allow us to predict patterns of contemporary evolutionary change. About two decades ago, a dataset of phenotypic rates of change in wild populations was compiled. Since then, researchers h...
Wild populations must continuously adapt to environmental changes or they risk extinction. Such adaptations can be measured as phenotypic rates of change and can allow us to predict patterns of contemporary evolutionary change. About two decades ago, a dataset of phenotypic rates of change in wild populations was compiled. Since then, researchers h...
Adaptive landscapes embody a concept that has provided valuable services to evolutionary biology over the last 80 years. Its heuristic power derives from its capacity to portray fitness functions in planar representations where environmental conditions are presumed to be static. In an effort to incorporate environmental change into this powerful th...
Parasites can invade new ecosystems if they are introduced with their native hosts or if they successfully infect and colonize new hosts upon arrival. Here, we ask to what extent an introduced parasite demonstrates specialization among novel host species. Infection surveys across three field sites in Gatun Lake, Panama, revealed that the invasive p...
Introduced species disrupt native communities and biodiversity worldwide. Parasitic infections (and at times, their absence) are thought to be a key component in the success and impact of biological invasions by plants and animals. They can facilitate or limit invasions, and positively or negatively impact native species. Parasites have not only di...
1. Introduced species disrupt native communities and biodiversity worldwide. Parasitic infections (and at times, their absence) are thought to be a key component in the success and impact of biological invasions by plants and animals. They can facilitate or limit invasions, and positively or negatively impact native species.
2. Parasites have not o...
Background/Question/Methods
The spread of non-native exotic species can have important impacts on the composition, diversity and structure of native ecological communities but can also affect the ecology and evolution of native and introduced species across functional and taxonomic groups. Of particular concern to public health, biodiversity conse...
Larval developmental strategy is a key life-history trait governing many aspects of the ecology and evolution of marine invertebrates. We compared developmental strategies of two geminate, or sister, species of mud snails (Potamididae) on either side of the Isthmus of Panama, Cerithideopsis californica on the Pacific and C. pliculosa on the Atlanti...
