Parasites are just as important to biodiversity as animals that are predators or competitors, a Harvard lecturer told ASU students and faculty Friday.
Charles Nunn, associate professor with Harvard’s Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, presented his work with primates and parasites in a lecture titled “Sex, Germs and Worms: Infectious Diseases in Primate Societies.”
Parasites are important in ecology because they contribute to conservational concerns. Ecosystem diversity is almost as dependent on parasites as it is on anything else, he said.
In his lecture, Nunn examined the relationship between parasites and sexually transmitted diseases in primate societies.
Both human and primates have parasites, Nunn said. His research aims to examine the relationship between parasites and disease spread by using models of how and where disease spreads, comparative analysis and field research. Specifically, his research team studied STDs in primate societies.
“Sexual selection is going to influence the spread of STDs through populations,” he said.
In his research, Nunn studied both monogamous and polygynandrous primate societies and how STDs spread through them.
“STDs don’t survive very well in monogamous species,” he said.
Nunn said his research team took these models to test various hypotheses. In some of his comparative research, he looked at how various traits in primates affected the amount of parasites they had or were able to have.
Ecological factors, body mass, character traits and diet all contribute to the levels of parasites certain primates carry, he said.
“Primates that eat more insects might have more parasites,” he said.
Ultimately, however, the research team discovered one of the greatest underlying factors to determine parasite richness was population density, he said.
The Global Mammal Parasite Database is an online resource Nunn and his colleagues developed that is composed of thousands of pieces of data from published literature to highlight parasitic patterns in certain species.
Parasites in humans and domesticated animals may “spill over” into wild populations, Nunn said. He said there is an understanding among many ecologists that parasites deserve equal rights.
“There is a co-extinction process going on,” he said.
Many primate hosts are going extinct — an issue Nunn said may be causing the extinction of various types of parasites.
Anthropology junior Gabriel Zilnik said biodiversity is important and very much affected by parasitism.
“Primates are dying due to parasitism disease,” he said. “Understanding that is why Dr. Nunn’s work is very important.”
It’s essential for professors from other universities to bring their findings to ASU students and faculty, Zilnik said.
“Ultimately [it’s important] to avoid academic inbreeding where you only have the opinion of your professor,” he said.
The idea of science is to constantly test hypotheses and in order to understand all aspects of an issue, it’s critical to get the perspective of scientists in other places, he said.
Reach the reporter at ndgilber@asu.edu.
