About:

Jennifer Welsh

Marine Parasite Ecology - PhD Candidate

2003-2006  BSc (Hons) - Marine Biology

2006-2007  MSc - Aquauculture & the Environment

2007-2010  MRes - Applied Fisheries Biology

2011 +        PhD - Marine Parasite Ecology

Project:

Biodiversity and disease risk in marine ecosystems

(Project in collaboration with Corina Brussaard (NIOZ))

Parasites are important organisms that can affect species richness, trophic connectivity and stability within a community. The emergence and spread of marine diseases is of increased global concern and interest. Despite this, until recently parasites have not been included in food web analyses due to a lack of knowledge on their ecology and interactions with their habitat. Parasites can alter food web topologies and dynamics and, at the same time be affected by the structure of food webs, specifically during pathogen transmission. The rate and effectiveness of pathogen transmission within the marine environment may be governed by the ambient community structure and localized biodiversity. Ambient fauna and flora can interfere with transmission pathways through predation, hyper-parasitism, decoy and dead end hosts, physical disturbances and toxic secretion. Ultimately these interventions, known as dilutors, can reduce infection levels within the target host and thus affect disease risks in food webs.

Typical trematode life cycle showing the definitve host (bird), 1st intermediate host (gastropod), 2nd intermediate host and the free-living stages. Trematodes are ubiqutous and are considered to be the most important parasite in marine intertidal systems.

Biotic factors which may interefere with the transmission of trematode cerceriae from their 1st intermediate host to the second intermediate host.

This project intends to apply microcosm experiments to establish which organisms cause dilution effects, what role host and dilutor densities plays on the dilution of diseases, and the nutritional value of the pathogen to potential predators (Figure 3). The research shall focus on Digenean trematodes in benthic invertebrates and virus-plankton interactions with the potential to apply the methods to other marine communities

Internships and BSc/MSc projects

Various research projects for MSc and BSc students as well as for short internships are available all year round. They range from field studies over field and lab experiments to literature-based meta-analytical approaches. Please contact us for more details.

Publications

Goedknegt, A., Welsh, J. and Thieltges, D. W. 2012. Parasites as Prey. eLS.

Jennifer E. Welsh, Pauline A. King, Eugene MacCarthy. 2012. Pathological and physiological effects of nicking on brown crab (Cancer pagurus) in the Irish crustacean fishery. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology.ISSN 0022-2011

Jennifer E. Welsh, Pauline A. King, Eugene MacCarthy. 2011. Characterization of a biofilm bacterium from a recirculation system for European lobster (Homarus gammarus), Aquaculture, Volume 318, Issues 3–4.