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About Elliott Reams
Expertise
I can answer questions on basic ecological principles, theories, equations etc. I have the most experience in lotic (moving water) ecology. I can also answer most questions undergraduate level or lower, on topics in entomology (insects), but most of my experience is in aquatic entomology. I also have experience in agro-ecology (farming) and soil invertebrate ecology.
Experience
- 3 years lotic restoration habitat assessment, fish shocking and identification, macroinvertebrate identification, dissolved oxygen etc.
- Lotic ecology consulting
- Agro-ecology: vegetation analysis, insect composition, pitfall trapping, small mammal trapping.
- Ant mound soil composition, geologic oven procedures, particle size diffraction.
- Misc. Other ecological research projects.
Organizations
The Society of Conservation Biology
The Wilson Ornithological Society
The Ecological Society of America
Trout Unlimited
Education/Credentials
B.S. - Biology - Field Emphasis - University of Wisconsin - Platteville
MS - Biology (currently enrolled) Eastern Washington University.
Past/Present Clients
Kohler company, Cassville Wisconsin
Harry and Laura Nohr Chapter of Trout Unlimited
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You are here: Experts > Science > Ecology > Ecology > Ecology/Entomology/Immunology/Epidemiology
Ecology - Ecology/Entomology/Immunology/Epidemiology
Expert: Elliott Reams - 9/19/2008
Question
Over breakfast with my children, this morning, I was discussing mosquitos -- trying to explain why it's dangerous to consider any organism as 'simply a pest' -- preferable, instead, to remember that the relationships among organisms can be complex, and that aspects of these relationships are often obscure.
So I said to the kids: "I know you've heard about malaria and other mosquito-transmitted diseases. And it's true that when mosquitos are suppressed or kept from biting, incidence of these diseases in human populations goes down. But mosquitos and their kin have been around far longer than people have. And it may turn out that mosquitos play some hidden, but very important role -- maybe even related to their incidental role as pathogen transmitters -- that makes them key to human and animal health. For example, we know that mosquitos bite different kinds of mammals and birds - not just people. So in effect, they form a living network connecting the immune systems of all the warm-blooded species in a region, and by extension, neighboring regions. Could this be important? I'm not sure we know. But one way it might be important is that the presence of such a network, along with other disease vectors, challenges our immune system by exposing it to local pathogens, and repeats these challenges frequently, meaning that we're going to have an opportunity to raise immune defenses against any new bugs brewing in neighboring human populations, and in the animal pool. So while the downside of mosquitos might be epidemics, the upside might be that more frequent and virulent epidemics are being prevented."
Obviously (not being a biologist) I meant this as a hypothetical -- just to suggest that a certain kind of prudence and speculation about possible unknowns is appropriate when thinking about species (and about doing things like "Spraying a lot of bug-spray around to kill all the mosquitos"). But is it a rational idea? Or are there so many competing disease-vectors, for example, that the role of any one organism in maintaining immune-system interconnectedness is non-critical?
Answer
Hi John,
I think this is a real complex question without a definite answer. But I think I can help, diseases are a good factor in ecological population control. As bad as it sounds vectors are a good control on population over density. In ecology, there are a couple factors that we should consider when talking about populations. We use a thing called carrying capacity for a given species, this means how many organisms can be supported by the given amount of resources. Vectors are a density dependent reaction to a population, meaning as a population increases the amount of disease will increase, to keep the population in check, reduce the amount of animals in an ecosystem to come down to the carrying capacity. It is important to note that there are also many other factors than disease that will influence this as well.
Now on to your question, I don't think I can really touch on the whole immune system response. But I can say that through evolution the human body has responded with adaptations to defend against certain diseases. Certain random mutations in our genetics have yielded defenses against some diseases. For example an individual with sickle cell anemia has an inherit immunity to Malaria. These adaptations have proved beneficial in some instances, such as areas where malaria was so present that individuals without an immunity would not be able to reach sexual maturity, thus not allowing their genes to continue in the genome. Transversely, individuals with sickle cell could reach maturity, thus perpetuating sickle cell.
As far as your question about competing vectors for diseases, there are some instances that have secondary vectors. Such as lyme disease, lyme is transmitted to mammals more specifically humans through the Deer Tick. The trick is that the Deer Tick is only the secondary vector for the disease. The other vector is the white footed mouse, lyme sits in the mouse, gets bit by the tick, then the tick bites and transmits lyme to humans. As the white footed mouse populations increase with urbanization and development, the instances of lyme increase.
I don't know if this helps with your question, but to sum up Mosquitoes are an important member of the ecosystem, probably one of the most important. They are essential members of the insect community creating food for many organisms (birds, bats, reptiles etc.). They are a pain in the rear, but they do serve a purpose, not only as a food source, but also a vector for some diseases.
I think it's good to bring up the vector information for insects, because if (like bees) Mosquitoes were removed from the landscape a great deal of organisms would suffer and more than likely go extinct.
I hope I answered some of your questions, if you need me to clear up or answer anything more in depth please don't hesitate to ask.
Elliott
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