Objective
Invasive species are a major threat to biodiversity and human health because they often undergo unregulated population growth, putatively because they have escaped their predators; the enemy release hypothesis. However, parasites are also ‘enemies’ and recent work has shown that invasive species lack a full parasite community. So we ask, “does the reduced parasite community contribute to invasion success?” The first step is to undertake rigorous, replicated experiments that will empirically compare the parasite community of invaders versus their native counterparts. We will examine this with respect to the bank vole, a common woodland rodent in mainland UK that has recently become invasive in Ireland. We will experimentally manipulate specific parasites and simultaneously examine the vole population and parasite community interactions. We will describe the social network of the two populations and quantify the contact rates between bank voles and the native biota. Finally, we will investigate the co-evolutionary changes that occur as a function of changes in the parasite community. We predict that invasive species will adapt to the loss of parasites by investing less in immunity and that this has a genetic basis and so we will investigate “Are there genotypic differences between the native and invaded biota?” and secondly “do invasive species undergo evolutionary compensation of the immune system?” Finally, we draw comparisons between the expected changes in the invasive species immune system and that of the ‘Hygiene Hypothesis’ which states that, in humans, a lack of childhood exposure to infectious agents leads to increased susceptibility to allergic diseases. As such we will investigate “Can invasive rodents be used as a model system for the hygiene hypothesis?” This study comprises an in depth ecological investigation of the role of parasites in ‘enemy release’, using a combination of molecular techniques, field surveys, and ecological experiments.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences basic medicine immunology
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology invasive species
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008
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Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
CF10 3AT CARDIFF
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.