Life Sciences Commons^™

Does Adaptation To Harsh Environments Provide Protection Against Parasites?, Arielle Michaelis

Scholars Week

While host-parasite coevolution is generally well studied, much less attention has been paid to how parasite-host relationships are impacted by variation in the abiotic environment. This may be especially important when the host species' range includes both moderate and extreme environments, since the parasite might not be able to tolerate both climates. In such cases, adaptation to extreme environments might be a potential strategy to reduce parasitization. Studies have shown that parasites are more successful in the environment in which they originally coevolved with their host than in an environment with new abiotic stressors. In Washington, snowberry flies infest snowberries …