Grantee Research Project Results
2003 Progress Report: Habitat Alteration and Disease Effects on Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs
EPA Grant Number: R829091Title: Habitat Alteration and Disease Effects on Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs
Investigators: Collinger, Sharon K. , Stone, Eric R. , Ray, Chris , Cully, Jack , Loye, Jenella , Gage, Kenneth , Kosoy, Michael
Current Investigators: Collinger, Sharon K. , Ray, Chris , Cully, Jack , Gage, Kenneth , Kosoy, Michael
Institution: University of Colorado at Boulder , Kansas State University , University of California - Davis
Current Institution: University of Colorado at Boulder , Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , Kansas State University
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: December 15, 2001 through December 14, 2004 (Extended to December 14, 2005)
Project Period Covered by this Report: December 15, 2002 through December 14, 2003
Project Amount: $500,000
RFA: Wildlife Risk Assessment (2001) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Ecological Indicators/Assessment/Restoration , Aquatic Ecosystems , Biology/Life Sciences
Objective:
Our research focuses on the combined effects of habitat alteration and wildlife community structure on the risk of disease outbreaks in the black-tailed prairie dog, a species of conservation concern. This species is susceptible to bacterial blood diseases, including sylvatic plague and Bartonella, that are transmitted by fleas. Prairie dog colonies that contract plague commonly suffer 100 percent mortality, so predicting the risk of exposure to plague is critical for prairie dog conservation. Because plague may be the most critical threat to the survival of black-tailed prairie dogs, we hope to gain a better understanding of the spatial and temporal dynamics of plague in this system.
Predicting disease outbreaks involves consideration of multiple population stressors. Most diseases spread through contact between individuals of a single species so the prediction of outbreaks depends on prediction of population dynamics within the species. Blood diseases like the plague spread through contact between black-tailed prairie dogs and the many alternate mammalian hosts that occur in the same habitat. Our research project, therefore, addresses effects of landscape structure and land use on the dynamics of black-tailed prairie dogs and on the dynamics of the alternate host community.
Our field research will provide data to determine the statistical relationships between outbreaks of plague and bartonellosis in black-tailed prairie dogs and in the alternate host community. First, detailed studies of landscape structure and use, population demography, and disease will be conducted at five study sites in Colorado, Kansas, and Wyoming. Second, landscape structure and use will be related to presence-absence studies of disease and host populations conducted across several counties in Colorado and neighboring states.
Progress Summary:
Our research group held a 2-day meeting in January 2003 to discuss our progress from Year 1, to determine goals for Year 2, and to refine any sampling procedures for Year 2 of the research project. Based on plans made during this research group meeting, our field crews trapped small mammals that potentially serve as reservoir hosts for plague at 40 sites in Boulder County and at 30 sites at three national grasslands in Wyoming, Colorado, and Kansas. We collected fleas, blood, and tissue samples from each animal for analyses of pathogen occurrence and for population genetic analyses of prairie dog colonies. We collected over 1,200 blood samples and over 2,500 fleas during the summer of 2003. These samples are currently being analyzed for pathogen occurrence at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Fort Collins, CO.
We also continued to map prairie dog colonies in Boulder, CO, using global positioning systems (GPS) and collected data on prairie dog density, vegetation cover, activity, and surrounding land-use for each of these colonies. These data then were input into the geographic information system (GIS) database and georeferenced to overlay on baselayers supplied by Boulder City Open Space and Mountain Parks and Boulder County Open Space Departments. For information on prairie dog colonies in less urbanized landscapes, we mapped colonies on the Cimarron National Grassland, KS; Comanche National Grassland, CO; Kiowa National Grassland, NM; Rita Blanca National Grassland, OK, and TX; and Thunder Basin National Grassland, WY. We have developed an excellent GIS database that includes plague and prairie dog colony information across the geographic range of the black-tailed prairie dog. We examined historical records from the CDC’s archives to identify data that are of sufficient quality and detail to include in our GIS database on plague occurrence in the Colorado Front Range. We also have good information on the locations of plague in central Montana. For these and other areas, we have compiled information and reports on locations of plague positive and negative animals including deer mice, coyotes, foxes, and badgers.
This research project has provided many opportunities for communication and outreach to broader audiences. The project director was invited to present research results at six different venues during the past year. These include the symposium of the Society of Vector Ecology and The Wildlife Society (an EPA-organized symposium entitled, “Assessing Risks to Wildlife Populations from Multiple Stressors”), the Cedar Point Biological Station, the Institute for Ecosystem Studies, and two public meetings held in Colorado: the Prairie Dog Summit and the Prairie Dog Technical Conference. Dr. Sharon Collinge presented our research to the city of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks Department, on whose lands we conduct the field research. Dr. Collinge and research associate Dr. Chris Ray co-chaired a symposium for the 2003 Ecological Society of America meeting in Savannah, GA entitled, “Emerging diseases: stressing the union of community ecology and epidemiology.” This symposium was directly related to this EPA-funded research project, and we now have a contract with Oxford University Press for an edited volume entitled, “Disease ecology: community structure and pathogen dynamics,” with an estimated completion date of December 2004. Graduate students conducting research funded by this grant have presented research at meetings of the Society for Conservation Biology, the Ecological Society of America, the Guild of Rocky Mountain Population Biologists, and the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department’s spring symposium.
Future Activities:
Our research group will hold another 2-day meeting in late January 2004 to discuss research progress and plans for the upcoming field season. Starting in May 2004, we will conduct live-trapping of prairie dogs and other rodent species to collect information on distribution and abundance of rodents and to collect fleas and blood for disease screening. Additionally, we will continue to build the GIS database on plague occurrence and prairie dog distribution using data from other states that are still in the beginning phase of monitoring prairie dogs and therefore are finalizing data for public distribution.
With the field data that we collect in summer 2004, we will develop general mathematical models addressing the importance of habitat structure and community structure on risk resulting from diseases that infect multiple host species as well as specific models for predicting risk of disease outbreaks in the black-tailed prairie dog in different landscapes. These models should illustrate the potential for multiple stressors (habitat alteration, community alteration, and introduced disease) to influence population risk.
Additionally, we are developing a Web-based Internet Mapping Server that will allow people involved in prairie dog conservation, management, and plague surveillance to visit the Web site, input their contact information, and click on a map on the screen for the location of prairie dog colonies that have experienced plague or the locations of plague in species associated with prairie dog colonies. This way, we will be creating a spatially explicit up-to-date database of historical and recent plague locations in prairie dogs across their range. This database will be password protected so only those that are involved in prairie dog conservation, management, or plague surveillance will be able to add and view data online.
Journal Articles on this Report : 4 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
Other project views: | All 47 publications | 15 publications in selected types | All 12 journal articles |
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Brinkerhoff RJ, Ray C, Thiagarajan B, Collinge SK, Cully Jr. JF, Holmes B, Gage KL. Prairie dog presence affects occurrence patterns of disease vectors on small mammals. Ecography 2008;31(5):654-662. |
R829091 (2003) R829091 (2004) R829091 (Final) |
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Collinge SK, Johnson WC, Ray C, Matchett R, Grensten J, Cully JF, Gage KL, Kosoy MY, Loye JE, Martin AP. Landscape structure and plague occurrence in black-tailed prairie dogs on grasslands of the western USA. Landscape Ecology 2005;20(8):941-955. |
R829091 (2003) R829091 (2004) R829091 (Final) |
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Collinge SK, Johnson WC, Ray C, Matchett R, Grensten J, Cully Jr. JF, Gage KL, Kosoy MY, Loye JE, Martin AP. Testing the generality of a trophic-cascade model for plague. EcoHealth 2005;2(2):102-112. |
R829091 (2003) R829091 (2004) R829091 (Final) |
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Johnson WC, Collinge SK. Landscape effects on black-tailed prairie dog colonies. Biological Conservation 2004;115(3):487-497. |
R829091 (2002) R829091 (2003) R829091 (2004) R829091 (Final) |
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Supplemental Keywords:
risk assessment, pathogens, ecosystem, scaling, habitat, ecology, epidemiology, modeling, prairie dogs, wildlife, fleas,, RFA, Scientific Discipline, Geographic Area, Ecosystem Protection/Environmental Exposure & Risk, wildlife, Ecosystem/Assessment/Indicators, State, Environmental Monitoring, Ecological Risk Assessment, Ecology and Ecosystems, molecular epidemiology, risk assessment, ecosystem modeling, habitat, population stressors, endangered species, assessment models, ecology, ecosystem assessment, molecular diagnostics, animal responses, environmental risks, fleas, habitat loss, Wildlife Risk Assessment, conservation, genetic testing, wildlife community structure, risk models, ecological assessment, ecological impacts, ecosystem indicators, pathogen, environmental stress, ecosystem stress, ecological models, habitat alteration, prarie dogs, disease, ecological research, Colorado (CO)Relevant Websites:
http://spot.colorado.edu/~sharonc/CollingeLab.htm Exit
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.