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My research concentrates on investigating how multiple agrochemicals combine to influence the community and ecosystem ecology of wetlands. Using aquatic mesocosms containing plants, algae, zooplankton, snails, crayfish, insects, and amphibians, we are measuring the direct and indirect effects of mixtures of pesticides and excess nutrients and determining whether these effects are analogous to the effects of food web manipulations. This project will evaluate the usefulness of the well-developed body of food web theory for predicting the effects of environmental contaminants on communities and ecosystems. My long-term professional goal is to examine how evolution of virulence in pathogens and parasites is influenced by ecological factors and how this influence may be exploited by virulence management to reduce the impact of infectious diseases on humans and reduce the risk of catastrophic disease epidemics in the human population.
Romansic, J.M., Waggener, A.A., Blaustein, A.R. in press. Influence of ultraviolet-B radiation on growth, prevalence of deformities, and susceptibility to predation in Cascades frog (Rana cascadae) larvae. Hydrobiologia
Romansic, J.M., Diez, K.A., Higashi, E.M., Blaustein, A.R. in press. Effects of the pathogenic water mold Saprolegnia ferax on survival of amphibian larvae. Diseases of Aquatic Organisms
Rohr, J.R., Raffel, T.R., Romansic, J., McCallum, H., Hudson, P.J. 2008. Evaluating the links between climate, disease spread, and amphibian declines. PNAS. 105:17436-17441
Romansic, J.M., Higashi, E.M., Diez, K.A., Blaustein, A.R. 2007. Susceptibility of newly-metamorphosed frogs to a pathogenic water mold (Saprolegnia sp.). Herpetological Journal. 17:161-166
Garcia, T.S., Romansic, J.M., Blaustein, A.R. 2006. Survival of three species of anuran metamorphs exposed to UV-B radiation and the pathogenic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatadis. Diseases of Aquatic Organisms. 72:163-169
Romansic, J.M., Diez, K.A., Higashi, E.M., Blaustein, A.R. 2006. Effects of nitrate and the pathogenic water mold Saprolegnia on survival of amphibian larvae. Diseases of Aquatic Organisms. 68:235-243
Johnson, P.T.J., Preu, E.R., Sutherland, D.R., Romansic, J.M., Han, B., Blaustein, A.R. 2006. Adding infection to injury: synergistic effects of predation and parasitism on amphibian malformations. Ecology. 87:2227-2235
Blaustein, A.R., Romansic, J.M., Scheessele, E.A. 2005. Ambient levels of UV-B cause mortality in juvenile western toads, Bufo boreas. American Midland Naturalist. 154:375-382
Blaustein, A.R., Romansic, J.M., Scheesele, E.A., Han, B.A., Pessier, A.P., Longcore, J.E. 2005. Interspecific variation in susceptibility of frog tadpoles to the pathogenic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. Conservation Biology. 19:1460-1468
Blaustein, A.R., Han, B., Fasy, B., Romansic, J.M., Scheesele, E., Anthony, R.G., Marco, A., Chivers, D.P., Belden, L.K., Kiesecker, J.M., Garcia, T.S., Lizana, M., Kats, L.B. 2004. Variable breeding phenology affects the exposure of amphibian embryos to ultraviolet radiation and Optical characteristics of natural waters protect amphibians from UV-B in the U.S. Pacific Northwest: a comment. Ecology. 85:1747-1754
Blaustein, A.R., Romansic, J.M., Kiesecker, J.M., Hatch, A.C. 2003. Ultraviolet radiation, toxic chemicals, and amphibian population declines. Diversity and Distributions. 9:123-140 |
