Office Address

1987 Upper Buford Circle
St. Paul, MN 55108
United States

Rachel

Paseka

Ecology, Evolution and Behavior

Google Scholar
Research Website

I study the interactive links between infectious disease and ecosystem processes. As a graduate student at Rutgers University, I used ecological stoichiometry as a framework to study nutrient dynamics in host-parasite interactions and to link infection patterns with ecosystem-level nutrient availability. My graduate research focused on macroparasites infecting freshwater fish and included field surveys, mesocosm and laboratory experiments, and elemental chemistry. As a postdoc in the Borer-Seabloom lab at UMN, I am continuing to pursue the connections between ecosystems and disease with a focus on autotroph-pathogen interactions. Along with collaborators from a multi-institutional working group funded by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), I am using data synthesis and developing mathematical theory to study feedbacks between human actions and microbial diseases of autotrophs across ecosystem types and scales of ecological complexity.