Welcome to the Strauss lab!

Welcome to the Strauss lab in the Odum School of Ecology at UGA. We study the ways that environmental gradients and species interactions – like competition and predation – shape the dynamics of infectious disease. Reciprocally, we also strive to understand the impacts of parasites and pathogens on community dynamics and ecosystem processes. Research in the Strauss lab is conceptually motivated, and we often approach our questions through an iterative combination of field studies, experiments at both individual and mesocosm scales, and mathematical theory. We mostly work in aquatic ecosystems, focusing on zooplankton as hosts and the parasites that infect them.

Meet our team!
Zooplankton & Their Parasites

Zooplankton & Their Parasites

Zooplankton are critical members of aquatic food webs. Ceriodaphnia (small) and Daphnia (large) compete with each other and interfere with transmission of each other's parasites.

Pond Sampling

Pond Sampling

Sampling plankton communities in Whitehall Forest, UGA. Microsporidian parasites infect high proportions of populations of Daphnia in the spring.

Field Experiments

Field Experiments

Sampling the herbaceous community in an experimental nutrient addition plot. Nutrients frequently increase the severity of fungal foliar disease on grass hosts.

Mesocosm Experiments

Mesocosm Experiments

Mesocosm experiments test impacts of temperature, nutrients, and community structure on the transmission of infectious disease at the community scale.