Invasive species pose a major threat to global biodiversity. Aside from direct effects on ecosystems, such as competition with native species, invasive species can themselves be or help introduce invasive parasites and pathogens. Transmission of parasites to novel hosts can lead to epidemics that devastate local host populations, even causing extinctions. My research uses field and lab based methods in a multidisciplinary approach of invasion biology, evolutionary biology, and ecology to investigate the processes facilitating successful parasite invasions. |