Johnson Lab

Welcome to the Dark Side of Biology

Congrats Wynne and Travis!

Both graduate students Wynne Moss and Travis McDevitt-Galles successfully completed their PhD’s and landed competitive post-doctoral positions.....

What is the relationship between Bd and bullfrogs?

Olivia Milloway, one of our NSF REU recipients for this summer, explored our 10-years of field collection data from the Bay Area of CA to investigate the relationship between Bd transmission and bullfrogs......

Join us! Accepting graduate applications

We are currently accepting applications for highly motivated, dynamic, and engaged candidates interested in pursuing a Ph.D. in aquatic disease ecology. For information on how to apply see tab PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS.

That's a wrap

Field season for 2021 is offically over! This year the CA mega-drought was raging. In fact 45 ponds went dry in total, nearly half of our sites! Interestingly, 37 of those were dry before our second visit which typically occurs in July. We are exicted to investigate how amphibians parasites infections were altered in these conditions.

Brevoortia tyrannus, parasitic isopod, Olencira praegustator, Atlantic menhaden

Invasion of the Isopods

Former undergraduate student Dylan Rose published his honors thesis on Olencira praegustator, an isopod that parasitizes the mouths and gill chambers of economically important fish.

Ribeiroia ondatrae, pacific chorus frog, pacific tree frog, Pseudacris regilla, malformation

Disease's Hidden Death Toll

In a new study, Mark Wilber and colleagues combine information on parasite distributions, extensive field data, and laboratory experiments to estimate – for the first time – how many amphibians die annually from trematode parasite infection.

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What We Do

Our research focuses on two pervasive and inter-related forms of biological change: disease emergence and species invasions. Both have important consequences not only for individuals and populations, but for entire ecological communities and ecosystem processes. Invasions and disease can also have costly economic and health repercussions for human society. Our group strives to bring a broad perspective to these questions by combining field experiments, large-scale spatial and temporal field data, molecular tools and ecological modeling.

Disease Community Ecology

We apply approaches from community ecology to better understand and manage contemporary disease threats of humans and wildlife, which are often the product of interactions among multiple host species, coinfecting parasites, and other species.

Our Troubled Waters

Lakes, rivers, ponds and streams have become some of the most imperiled habitats on earth. Our group uses diverse tools ranging from genomics to ecosystem experiments to understand how freshwater systems are changing and at what cost.

Conservation, management, climate change, ecosystem, Johnson Lab

Complexity in Conservation

Effective management requires approaches than can measure, anticipate and ameliorate the consequences of interactive stressors, such as land use change, pollution, invasive species and climate shifts.

Check out our other projects!

Interested in learning more about the Johnson Lab? Find out more about specific projects by checking out our other websites. If you would like to support future research, click the link below to make a donation to the Johnson Lab.

Malformation Nation Parasite Observatory Donate Here!

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