Sustainability Program Manager
University of Connecticut

A Ticking Bomb: Climate, Health, and Development of Vaccines for Emerging Vector-Borne Diseases

In the past year we have all been reminded that emerging infectious diseases are significant threats to human health and economic stability.  Climate is also a main factor affecting human health and disease, and in particular vector-borne diseases.  In this talk I will discuss emerging infectious diseases, especially those transmitted by mosquitoes and ticks, and examine the influence of climate change on vector distribution and abundance.  I will also discuss my efforts and of others to develop vaccines and alternative strategies against diseases transmitted by mosquitoes and ticks.

Climate Change:  The Urgency and Opportunity

The talk will present the science underlying the global and regional changes that are occurring, project changes modeled through the coming century, the decisions we collectively are making now, and the opportunities we have now to create a stable climate.  The discussion will incorporate both global and local scales for climate and impacts.

Dr. Seth's research group studies earth’s climate variability and change in the recent past and future, with an emphasis on regional processes.  Their work is computationally intensive, using climate models and large high-resolution observational datasets.  They are especially interested in questions relevant to regional climate adaptation.  The group is comprised of PhD students, undergraduate students, and at times post-doctoral fellows.

Island in the Storm: Resistance and Resilience of Puerto Rico’s Biota to Global Change

In this presentation, I provide an overview of the disturbance regime of Puerto Rico (the kinds of events, how often they occur, their intensity, and their spatial impact).  Thereafter, I highlight responses of animal populations and communities to gradual disturbances that unravel continuously over time, such as atmospheric warming, and contrast them to responses to episodic disturbances, such as hurricanes, that are of much shorter duration with a distinct beginning and distinct ending.  In general, changes initiated by hurricanes are more important than is global warming. 

Currently, we see little evidence for long-term declines in the abundances of species, for extinction of species, or for changes in patterns of community composition. Indeed, the phenomenon popularly known as “Insect Armageddon” is not occurring for insects or for other animal species (birds, frogs, snails) in Puerto Rico.  Nonetheless, the frequency of high intensity storms is predicted to increase in the Caribbean, and may alter environmental characteristics so as to create a tipping point beyond which species may not be able to recover.