PhD Research

My PhD project is funded by the 1252 Trinity Postgraduate Research Scholarship. I am exploring how heatwaves, thermal variation, and biotic stressors alter the thermal response of the small freshwater crustacean, Daphnia magna, and whether sudden temperature spikes or fluctuations act differently from slowly rising temperatures. I focus on laboratory experiments combining alterations in temperature with various diseases to understand the impact of the multiple stressors associated with global change on health and disease.

I am specifically interested in addressing the following questions:

1. How variable temperatures alter proliferation of the microsporidum parasite Ordospora colligata? Does the predictability of temperature matter?
2. Do variable temperatures affect different diseases the same way?
3. How variable temperatures alter disease dynamics? My data will provide insight into how stressors influence future epidemics.