SERDP and ESTCP Webinar: Changes in Pathogen Exposure Pathways Under Non-Stationary Conditions
This SERDP and ESTCP webinar focuses on DoD-funded research efforts to predict how changing climate conditions impact host-pathogen interactions and vector-borne disease transmission. Specifically, investigators will discuss how predictive models of chytridiomycosis can be used to evaluate the potential of alternative disease management tactics. Investigators will also talk about the predicted consequences of climate change on tick-borne disease risks.
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Webinar #136 (6/17/2021)
Changes in Pathogen Exposure Pathways Under Non-Stationary Conditions
Dr. Corinne Richards-Zawacki, University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Brian Allan, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
June 17, 2021
12:00 PM ET (9:00 AM PT)
Abstracts
“Effects of Climate Change on Host-Pathogen Interactions in Chytridiomycosis” by Dr. Corinne Richards-Zawacki ( SERDP Project RC-2638)
Clarifying the links between climate and wildlife host-pathogen interactions will provide valuable insight into the dynamics, ecology and evolution of infectious diseases, and offer direction for effective management of threatened populations. Chytridiomycosis, a disease from the Batrachochytrium fungi, has recently caused declines and extinctions of amphibian populations on several continents. The central objectives of this project are to (1) develop predictive models of chytridiomycosis based on an understanding of how current and future climate may impact the ecology, evolution and dynamics of this host-pathogen interaction; and (2) use the models to investigate the potential of alternative disease management tactics. The presentation will discuss our models which use data from field surveys and experiments conducted by our team at field sites that span a variety of habitats and climates within the United States. Given the potential impact of climate change on disease, studies of this nature will be critical in developing strategies to promote the long-term health of threatened amphibians and other wildlife on Department of Defense (DoD) lands.
“
Effects of Climate Change, Prescribed Fire and Plant Invasions on
Tick-Borne Disease Risk” by Dr. Brian Allan
(
SERDP Project RC-2636)
Tick-borne diseases (TBDs) represent a major public health threat in North America, particularly for military personnel training on DoD installations. Ecological theory predicts that climate change will likely alter vector-borne disease transmission by a variety of direct and indirect pathways. This project explores several of the predicted consequences of climate change, including altered fire regimes and plant communities and their interactions with wildlife, for human risk of exposure to TBDs in the southeastern United States. Project-specific objectives are to (1) evaluate the interactions between fire and plant invasions spanning a gradient in fire management, invasive plant distribution and abundance, and climatic conditions across the southeastern United States; (2) quantify the effects of fire and plant invasions, and their interactions, for variation in wildlife abundance, tick abundance, tick infection rates, and TBD risk to humans; and (3) calibrate a spatially explicit model of TBD risk in response to fire-invasion interactions and incorporate simulations of climate change scenarios. Benefits of this project include an improved understanding of current TBD risk on DoD installations and of the potential consequences of climate change for TBD risk and human health.
Speaker Biographies

Dr. Cori Richards-Zawacki is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. She is also the Director of Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology, the university’s biological field station. Prior to these positions, she was an assistant professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Tulane University in New Orleans and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Dr. Richards-Zawacki has been studying the ecology and evolution of the interaction between amphibians and their Batrachochytrium fungal pathogens for the past 15 years, since an outbreak of chytridiomycosis in Panama devastated the amphibian populations she was studying as a graduate student. She continues her work in Panama, now attempting to uncover the mechanisms by which amphibian hosts have come to persist and, in some cases, recover from Batrachochytrium infections. Another major focus of her research is understanding and predicting the impacts of climate fluctuations on the amphibian-Batrachochytrium interaction. Dr. Cori Richards-Zawackicompleted bachelor’s degrees in chemical engineering and biology, and a doctoral degree in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Dr. Brian Allan is an associate professor in the Department of Entomology and School of Integrative Biology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Allan has been on the faculty at the University of Illinois since 2010, He previously worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at Washington University's Tyson Research Center. Dr. Allan has studied ticks and tick-borne diseases for over 20 years. He is interested in how human-mediated global change, such as climate change and human land-use, affect human exposure risk. Since 2016, he has been funded by SERDP to investigate the impacts of climate change, prescribed fire and plant invasions on risk of exposure to tick-borne diseases on DoD installations in the southeastern United States. He received bachelor’s degrees in biology and zoological anthropology from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and a doctoral degree in evolution, ecology and population biology from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
Past Webinars
- Installation Energy and Water (17)
- 07/09/2020 - Securing DoD Control Systems and Infrastructure from Cyber Threats
- 02/06/2020 - Battery Storage Resiliency Results from Installation Microgrid Simulations and Opportunities for Field Demonstration
- 01/14/2020 - Improving Energy Efficiency through Advanced Building Controls
- 08/08/2019 - Building Energy and Water Efficiency Solutions
- 02/21/2019 - Utilization of Advanced Conservation Voltage Reduction for Energy Reduction on DoD Installations
- 07/12/2018 - Innovative Low-Cost Building Automation Sensors and Controls
- 03/22/2018 - Cloud Computing Services for DoD - We Are Going to The Cloud!
- 11/16/2017 - Building Envelope Technologies
- 06/15/2017 - Coupling Geothermal Heat Pumps with Underground Seasonal Thermal Energy Storage
- 04/20/2017 - Solutions for Installations' Participation in Energy Markets
- 01/12/2017 - Award Winning Projects: Energy and Water
- 10/06/2016 - Cyber Security and its Impacts on Installation Energy Management
- 07/14/2016 - Remote Methods for Water Conservation
- 05/05/2016 - Cost Effective and Resilient Building-Scale Microgrid Solutions for Increased Energy Security
- 10/15/2015 - LED-ing the Way: Sophisticated and Energy Efficient Exterior Lighting Systems for DoD Installations
- 02/19/2015 - Raise the Roof: Increased Rooftop Solar Efficiency Beyond Flat Panel PV
- 12/18/2014 - Energy Audits: From Clipboard to Cloud
- Environmental Restoration (46)
- 12/10/2020 - Approaches for Managing Contaminated Sediments
- 11/19/2020 - Abiotic Degradation of Chlorinated Solvents in Subsurface Environments
- 10/22/2020 - Managing Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) Impacts to Subsurface Environments and Assessment of Commercially Available PFAS-Free Foams (Part 2)
- 10/08/2020 - Managing AFFF Impacts to Subsurface Environments and Assessment of Commercially Available PFAS-Free Foams (Part 1)
- 07/23/2020 - PFAS Fate, Transport and Treatment
- 06/18/2020 - Advances in the Treatment of 1,4-Dioxane in Mixed Contaminant Plumes
- 05/07/2020 - Innovative Technologies for PFAS Destruction in Investigation Derived Wastes
- 04/09/2020 - Ecological Risk Assessment Approaches at PFAS-Impacted Sites
- 03/12/2020 - Applying Compound-Specific Isotope Analysis to Document Contaminant Degradation and Distinguish Sources
- 12/12/2019 - Advances in Remediating Groundwater Contaminated with Chlorinated Solvents
- 11/07/2019 - Status of SERDP and ESTCP Efforts on PFAS and Innovative Approaches for Treatment of Waste Derived from PFAS Subsurface Investigations
- 10/24/2019 - Advances in Managing Contaminated Groundwater Using High Resolution Site Characterization and Contaminant Mass Flux Reduction
- 10/17/2019 - Managing AFFF Impacts to Subsurface Environments and Assessment of Commercially Available Fluorine-Free Foams
- 09/05/2019 - The Use of Advanced Molecular Biological Tools in Groundwater Contaminated with Chlorinated Solvents
- 06/20/2019 - Vapor Intrusion: Modeling Tools and Cost Effective Mitigation
- 05/23/2019 - Treatment Options for the Emerging Contaminants 1,2,3-Trichloropropane and 1,2-Dibromoethane
- 04/11/2019 - Managing Contaminated Sediments: Passive Sampling Methods and In Situ Treatment
- 02/07/2019 - The REMChlor-MD Groundwater Transport and Remediation Model for Sites with Matrix Diffusion
- 11/15/2018 - Stormwater Impacts on Sediment Recontamination
- 10/18/2018 - Restoration of Chlorinated Solvent Contaminated Groundwater Sites: The Value of Information Challenge
- 10/04/2018 - Managing Groundwater Impacts at Chlorinated Solvent Sites
- 08/09/2018 - Energy Sustainable Wastewater Treatment Systems for Forward Operating DoD Installations
- 06/28/2018 - Managing Sites Impacted by 1,4-Dioxane: New Developments in Molecular Tools and Conceptual Site Models
- 09/07/2017 - Research and Development Needs for Management of DoD's PFAS Contaminated Sites
- 07/27/2017 - Management of Energetic and Propellant Material Releases on Testing and Training Ranges
- 05/18/2017 - High-Resolution Site Characterization at Chlorinated Solvents Sites
- 04/06/2017 - 1,4-Dioxane Impacts and Innovative Cleanup Technologies at DoD Contaminated Sites
- 03/09/2017 - Award Winning Projects: Environmental Restoration
- 02/23/2017 - Monitoring and Risk Assessment of Environmental Risks Posed by Munitions Constituents in Aquatic Systems
- 12/15/2016 - Advances in the Assessment and In Situ Treatment of Contaminated Sediments
- 11/03/2016 - Bioavailability of Contaminants of Concern in Soils at DoD-Impacted Sites
- 09/08/2016 - Practical Assessment and Optimization of Redox-Based Groundwater Remediation Technologies
- 07/28/2016 - Geophysics 101 – Realistic expectations for geophysics when used for site characterization and remediation monitoring - Part 2
- 06/30/2016 - Geophysics 101 – Realistic expectations for geophysics when used for site characterization and remediation monitoring - Part 1
- 06/02/2016 - Insensitive Munitions: Environmental Health Criteria, Fate and Transport
- 04/21/2016 - Long Term Monitoring Issues at Chlorinated Solvent Sites
- 01/28/2016 - Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs): Analytical and Characterization Frontiers
- 01/14/2016 - Vapor Intrusion: Regulatory Update and Advances in Assessment Tools
- 12/03/2015 - Emerging Contaminants: DoD Overview and State of Knowledge on Fluorochemicals and 1,4-Dioxane
- 10/29/2015 - Assessment and Treatment of Contaminated Sediments
- 08/20/2015 - Characterization and Remediation in Fractured Rock Environments
- 05/28/2015 - New Tools for Characterizing and Remediating Munitions and Energetics at Military Ranges
- 03/19/2015 - Quantitative Framework and Management Expectation Tool for the Selection of Bioremediation Approaches at Chlorinated Solvent Sites
- 01/08/2015 - DNAPL Source Zone Management Approaches
- 11/20/2014 - New Tools for Improving the Management of Contaminated Sediment Sites
- 10/30/2014 - Key Advances in Vapor Intrusion Assessments at Contaminated Sites
- Munitions Response (14)
- 09/24/2020 - Munitions Mobility and Burial in Underwater Environments
- 04/23/2020 -
- 07/25/2019 - Understanding Underwater Munitions Mobility and Behavior on the Beach Face and in Shallow Muddy Environments
- 08/23/2018 - Sediment Volume Search Sonar Development
- 11/02/2017 - Platforms for Underwater and Near-Shore Munitions Surveys
- 06/01/2017 - Classification of Military Munitions using Electromagnetic Induction Data
- 02/09/2017 - Award Winning Projects: Munitions Response
- 06/16/2016 - Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) for Advanced Geophysical Classification Investigations – Part 2
- 05/19/2016 - Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) for Advanced Geophysical Classification Investigations – Part 1
- 02/25/2016 - Recent Advances in the Classification of Underwater Munitions near a Water-Sediment Boundary
- 11/12/2015 - Munitions Response: Land Based Program Closeout
- 09/17/2015 - Munitions Response: Underwater Geophysical Sensors
- 05/07/2015 - Factors Affecting Munitions Mobility Underwater and In Situ Measurements
- 02/05/2015 - Acoustic Methods for Underwater Munitions
- Resource Conservation and Resiliency (25)
- 11/05/2020 - Changes in Pathogen Exposure Pathways under Non-Stationary Conditions and Their Implications for Wildlife and Human Exposure on Department of Defense Lands
- 08/20/2020 - Addressing Threatened and Endangered Species on DoD Lands
- 05/21/2020 -
- 03/26/2020 - Long-Term Ecological Studies: Evaluating Responses to Ecosystem Restoration and Optimizing Recovery of Plant Communities
- 10/03/2019 - Variation in Phenological Shifts: How do Annual Cycles and Genetic Diversity Constrain or Enable Responses to Climate Change?
- 08/22/2019 - Pacific Island Ecology and Management: Recovery of Native Plant Communities Following Removal of Non-Native Species
- 06/20/2019 - Developing Adaptation Strategies to Address Climate Change and Uncertainty
- 05/09/2019 - Roles of Soil Microbial Communities in Ecosystem Restoration
- 03/14/2019 - Determining the Temporal and Spatial Scales of Non-Stationarity in Temperature and Precipitation across the Continental United States
- 11/01/2018 - Plant Diversity and Biological Nitrogen Fixation in Longleaf Pine Ecosystems at Military Installations
- 09/20/2018 - Plant Diversity and Biological Nitrogen Fixation in Longleaf Pine Ecosystems at Military Installations
- 09/06/2018 - Informing Restoration Programs for Threatened and Endangered Plant Species
- 06/14/2018 - Approaches to Managing Threatened, Endangered and At-Risk Bird Species
- 05/03/2018 - Overview of the Defense Coastal/Estuarine Research Program (DCERP)
- 03/08/2018 - Quantifying and Modeling Fugitive Dust Emissions from DoD Activities
- 12/07/2017 - Management of Novel Hawaiian Ecosystems
- 10/05/2017 - New Resource Conservation Insights to Desert Environments
- 06/29/2017 - Future Vulnerabilities to Alaskan Ecosystems and Tools for Permafrost Assessment
- 02/23/2017 - Award Winning Projects: Resource Conservation and Resiliency
- 10/20/2016 - DoD Decision Making and Climate Change
- 09/22/2016 - Managing the Brown Treesnake Headache: Assessment of the Aerial Acetaminophen Bait Drop on Guam
- 04/07/2016 - Use of Climate Information for Decision Making and Impacts Research
- 12/17/2015 - Watershed Assessment and Stormwater Management Optimization Tools
- 03/26/2015 - Innovative Tools for Species Inventory, Monitoring, and Management
- 11/06/2014 - New Tools for Advancing Our Understanding of Marine Mammal Behavioral Ecology
- Weapons Systems and Platforms (23)
- 09/10/2020 - Reducing Hazardous Materials in Weapons Systems: Advances in Waterjet Applications and Cold Spray Technologies
- 06/04/2020 - Waste Reduction and Treatment in Armed Forces Vessels
- 02/27/2020 - Advances in the Development of Environmentally Friendly Pyrotechnic and Propellant Formulations
- 10/31/2019 - Developing and Demonstrating Non-Toxic and Sustainable Coating Systems for Military Platforms
- 09/19/2019 - Life Cycle Assessment and Developmental Environment Safety and Occupational Health Evaluation: Tools for Sustainment and Health
- 06/06/2019 - Developing and Demonstrating Non-Toxic and Sustainable Coating Systems for Military Platforms
- 04/25/2019 - Accelerated Corrosion and Ageing Studies
- 05/31/2018 - Resonant Acoustic Mixing of Energetic Material Formulations
- 04/05/2018 - Advanced Nanocrystalline Alloys as Alternatives for Repair and Replacement of High Wear Parts
- 02/08/2018 - Improved Methods to Evaluate Aerial Emissions and Develop Pollutant Emission Factors
- 10/19/2017 - Laser De-Paint and Surface Preparation Mechanism and Technologies
- 08/17/2017 - Zinc Nickel Dip and Brush Plating
- 05/04/2017 - Novel Coatings Systems for Use as High Performance Chemical Resistant Powder Topcoats
- 01/26/2017 - Award Winning Projects: Weapons Systems and Platforms
- 08/11/2016 - An Environmentally Acceptable Alternative for Fast Cook-Off Testing, Demonstration, Validation and Implementation Efforts
- 03/24/2016 - Cadmium and Chromate Elimination Efforts: Implementation Plans and Strategic Roadmaps for Three DoD Depots
- 02/11/2016 - Chromate/Hazardous Material Free Coating Systems for Military Aircraft and Ground Support Equipment
- 10/01/2015 - Hexavalent Chrome Elimination from Hard Chrome Surface Finishing
- 07/16/2015 - Sustainable Pyrotechnics: Flares and Projectiles
- 04/16/2015 - Blast Noise Measurements and Community Response
- 03/05/2015 - Understanding and Mitigating the Risks Associated with Lead-Free Electronics
- 01/22/2015 - Bio-Based Methodologies for the Production of Environmentally Sustainable Materials
- 12/04/2014 - Waste to Energy Options for Base Camps: Efficient Tar Management and Rotary Kiln Gasification
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