Email: manja.holland@yale.edu
Office: Greeley Laboratory, Room 125
Lab Phone: (203) 432-5321
Fax: (203) 432-3929

EDUCATION

RESEARCH INTERESTS

I am interested in the mechanisms of wildlife disease emergence, especially the role of human-mediated landscape alteration.  Emerging disease is a critical challenge for environmental scientists.  Anthropogenic change has been linked to both human and wildlife disease emergence, but the underlying mechanisms remain undetermined in most cases.  Two general mechanisms, acting either alone or in tandem, can explain increased infection resulting from anthropogenic change: anthropogenic change can impact disease through alteration of host response to infection or through changes in host density.  The elucidation of disease emergence mechanisms will be critical for prediction and prevention of future disease emergence.     

Recent studies in this lab and others have demonstrated that echinostome parasites can emerge in amphibians in wetlands associated with human development.  Echinostomes are common, widely distributed across North America, and infect many amphibian species.  Echinostomes encyst in tadpoles' kidneys, where they can disrupt kidney function and cause mortality.  I have conducted a range of field and laboratory experiments both to examine the fitness impact of echinostomes on green frogs (Rana clamitans), and to identify abiotic and biotic factors that contribute to echinostome emergence.  Currently, I am also working to develop techniques for non-invasive examination of the echinostome infection status of amphibian museum specimens using specialized ultrasound equipment.  These new methods will allow access to unexploited sources of data and enable examination of associations between land-use change and changes in echinostome infection rates in amphibians over broad spatial and temporal scales.  Overall, I hope that my work will contribute to a broader understanding of the role of anthropogenic change in both human and wildlife disease emergence.