In this weekly seminar series, Shannon LaDeau, PhD, Disease Ecologist, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, will present a one- hour talk titled:
Racial Legacies, Mosquito Ecology, and Human Exposure Risk in a Temperate City
Abstract: Vector-borne disease (VBD) is a growing risk to urban communities across the globe. Rising cases of mosquito-borne viruses such as dengue, Zika and chikungunya in temperate cities highlight critical gaps in understanding of how interacting ecological and socio-economic conditions influence VBD risk in complex, seasonal landscapes. Our multidisciplinary research team explores important trends and mechanisms explaining changing mosquito-human exposure in Baltimore City, MD (USA). Our results show how legacies of race-based investment continue to influence variability in mosquito abundances and human exposure, and that interacting poverty and climate forces can affect mosquito traits that are important to fitness and viral transmission. Finally, we explore how changing climate and urban greening efforts continuously refine the heterogeneous riskscape of VBD in temperate cities and consider relevant scales of predictability and management potential.
Bio: Shannon LaDeau is a community and disease ecologist at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY. Her research program integrates empirical and model-based studies to better understand how species interactions, abiotic filters, and environmental stochasticity influence community function in real (often urban) landscapes. Her current work emphasizes data-model integration approaches for forecasting tick and mosquito vector abundances, traits, and associated human risk in the context of global change. LaDeau received her PhD at Duke University and completed an NSF Bioinformatics Postdoctoral Fellowship with Smithsonian Institution and the Ohio State University before joining the Cary Institute in 2008.
This seminar series will take place in the 1st Fl Seminar Room with the option to join via Zoom.
Please follow lobby signage directing you to the 1st Fl corridor windows where you will then walk right until reaching the 1st Fl Seminar Room.
Meeting ID: 892 7906 4948 Passcode: 516742
Dial by your location: +1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
Further questions can be emailed to:
Doris Switzer
Environmental Science Initiative Coordinator
switzer@gc.cuny.edu