Johannah Farner

Understanding how temperature drives disease occurrence in nature will enable timely anticipation, prevention, and responses to shifting landscapes of disease risk in an era of rapid environmental change. We combined field surveys, lab experiments, and mathematics to show that warmer temperatures reduce parasitic pressure on mosquitoes in the western US.

Across the globe, organisms of all shapes and sizes are impacted by disease. The microbes that cause disease are highly temperature-sensitive, indicating that climate change will profoundly reshape where and when disease outbreaks occur—not just in humans, but also in wildlife and plants. My research investigates how temperature shapes disease burdens in nature, with the goal of understanding current and future
landscapes of disease risk. I combine large-scale field observations, controlled laboratory experiments, and mathematics to study the role of temperature in parasites that infect mosquitoes in western North America. I have found that mosquitoes are able to fend off the parasites at warm temperatures that improve their immune functioning. This means that as climate warming proceeds, mosquitoes across much of the west coast may be released from disease pressure.