Reed Scott

Reed Scott

PhD Candidate at the University of Vermont studying disease ecology.

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A list of all the posts and pages found on the site. For you robots out there is an XML version available for digesting as well.

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Posts

Diary of a Graduate Student

4 minute read

Published:

What does it mean to be a graduate student anyway? This is a big question, and one I should be well poised to answer (I’m in my 6th cumulative year of graduate school). Generally, graduate school refers to anyone pursuing a Master’s of Doctoral degree; Med school and Law school for example are kind of their own thing. An additional and important distinction is that graduate degrees are typically either thesis or non-thesis degrees. A thesis degree typically includes, well, a thesis: that means that the capstone to your degree is some sort of research thesis that typically will end up published as a paper(s) in an academic journal. A non-thesis degree will typically consist of just taking classes, with the potential for some sort of large final exam(s) at the end of the degree. I’ll be focusing mostly on thesis degrees in this post, as that’s what I know because both my degrees are thesis degrees.

Ranavirus

6 minute read

Published:

Globally, amphibians are currently facing massive declines and extinctions as a results of human activity(Carey et al. 1999; Daszak et al. 1999; Campbell Grant et al. 2020). While there are a number of factors involved, including the classics such as climate change and habitat loss, amphibians have also suffered losses as a result of emerging infectious diseases (Daszak et al. 1999, 2001; Greer and Collins 2008). An emerging infectious disease is defined as “a disease caused by a pathogen that is currently increasing in geographical range, is infecting an increased diversity of hosts, and/or has recently evolved”(Daszak 2000; Duffus et al. 2008). Here, we focus on an EID among amphibians: ranavirus. While ranaviruses have not received nearly as much attention as other amphibian disease (see my discussion of the amphibian chytrid fungus), it is in fact an EID that has been the cause of mass mortality events among amphibians in North America, Europe, South America as well as fish populations in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia(Cunningham et al. 1996; Bollinger et al. 1999; Gray and Chinchar 2015a). Here, I provide a brief outline of ranaviruses by describing their taxonomy, pathology and symptoms, as well as steps that could be taken to prevent or control the spread of ranaviruses.

The Amphibian Chytrid fungus

15 minute read

Published:

Chytridiomycosis is a skin disease currently devastating amphibians worldwide. The fungus that causes the disease, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (BD), operates by infecting keratinized cells of the amphibian epidermis (skin)(Ouellet et al. 2005). The disease was first described in 1998 in amphibian populations in Australia and South America(Berger et al. 1998). Since then, the disease has been reported on every continent except Antarctica and is estimated to have played a part in the decline of at least 500 species and the presumed extinction of 90 species(Scheele et al. 2019). Chytridiomycosis is arguable the greatest threat to biodiversity caused by a pathogen, and as such has warranted in-depth research and intense conservation efforts. Here, I will briefly describe the history, biology, and ecology of chytrid, and current conservation efforts to combat its spread.

portfolio

publications

Patch size drives colonization by aquatic insects, with minor priority effects of a cohabitant

Published in Ecology and Evolution, 2021

Patch size is one of the most important factors affecting the distribution and abun-dance of species, and recent research has shown that patch size is an important niche dimension affecting community structure in aquatic insects. Building on this result, we examined the impact of patch size in conjunction with presence of larval anurans on colonization by aquatic insects. Hyla chrysoscelis (Cope’s gray treefrog) larvae are abundant and early colonists in fishless lentic habitats, and these larvae can fill mul-tiple ecological roles. By establishing larvae in mesocosms prior to colonization, we were able to assess whether H. chrysoscelis larvae have priority effects on aquatic insect assemblages. We conducted a series of three experiments in naturally colo-nized experimental landscapes to test whether (1) H. chrysoscelis larval density af-fects insect colonization, (2) variation in patch size affects insect colonization, and (3) the presence and larval density of H. chrysoscelis shift colonization of insects be-tween patches of different size. Larval density independently had almost no effect on colonization, while patch size had species-specific effects consistent with prior work. When larvae and patch size were tested in conjunction, patch size had numer-ous, often strong, species-specific effects on colonization; larval density had effects largely limited to the assemblages of colonizing beetles and water bugs, with few ef-fects on individual species. Higher larval densities in large mesocosms shifted some insect colonization to smaller patches, resulting in higher beta diversity among small patches in proximity to high density large mesocosms. This indicates establishing H. chrysoscelis larvae prior to insect colonization can likely create priority effects that slightly shape insect communities. Our results support the importance of patch size in studying species abundances and distributions and also indicate that colonization order plays an important role in determining the communities found within habitat patches.

Recommended citation: Scott JR, RC, MR Pintar, and WJ Resetarits Jr. 2021. "Patch size drives colonization by aquatic insects, with minor priority effects of a cohabitant. " Ecology and Evolution 11(23): 16817–16834. doi: 10.1002/ece3.8313. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ece3.8313</p> </article> </div>

Island biogeography at the meso-scale: distance from forest edge affects patch size preferences in ovipositing treefrogs.

Published in Ecology, 2022

Diversity in habitat patches is partly driven by variation in patch size,which affects extinction, and isolation, which affects immigration. Patch size also affects immigration as a component of patch quality. In wetland ecosystems, where variation in patch size and interpatch distance is ubiquitous, relationships between size and isolation may involve trade-offs.We assayed treefrog oviposition at three patch sizes in arrays of two types,one where size increased with distance from forest(dispersed) and one with all patches equidistant from forest, testing directly for an interaction between patch size and distance,which was highly significant.

Recommended citation: Resetarits JR, WJ, Potts KM, and **Scott JR, RC**. 2022. Island biogeography at the meso-scale: distance from forest edge affects patch size preferences in ovipositing treefrogs. Ecology. https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecy.3766

Spatially explicit habitat selection: Testing contagion and the ideal free distribution with Culex mosquitoes.

Published in The American Naturalist, 2022

Since its inception, attempts have been made to improve ideal free distribution (IFD) theory to make it better fit real-world data. Spatial contagion is a newer ecological concept that suggests that the perceived quality of a patch can be affected by the quality of its neighbor patches. Here, we present a series of experiments testing for potential contagion effects, examining how contagion can interact with the IFD and determining whether spatial context affects assessment of habitat quality. First, we tested whether the presence of conspecific competitors negatively impacts oviposition habitat selection by female mosquitoes (Culex restuans). We then used a more complex spatial landscape to determine whether competition can create a spatial contagion effect. Finally, we examined whether the density of conspecifics can adjust the contagion effect of nutrient availability. While females avoided patches containing conspecifics, there was no effect of competition/density on neighboring patches. Additionally, we found that resource availability was a significant predictor of where egg rafts were laid, but resource availability did not have a contagion effect. These results provide further support for the utility of the IFD, as individuals were able to accurately assess patch-level habitat quality.

Recommended citation: Scott Jr., RC and Resetarits Jr, WJ.. "Spatially explicit habitat selection: Testing contagion and the ideal free distribution with Culex mosquitoes.." The American Naturalist. 200(5). https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/721009

talks

teaching

Global Environmental Assessment

Undergraduate course, teaching assistant, University of Vermont, Rubenstein School of Environmental and Natural Resources, 2022

This class focused on the uses of GIS in assessing environmental issues. As a teaching assistant I instructed students on the basic uses of GIS, as well as interpretation of their results.

Meta-community approach to disease dynamics

Guest Lecture, University of Vermont, Rubenstein School of Environmnetal and Natural Resources, 2022

Gave a talk on amplification and dilution effects on disease risk. This talk focused on my own research studying amphibian diseases in Vermont.

Conservation Biology

Undergraduate course, teaching assistant, University of Vermont, Rubsenstein School of Environmental and Natural Resources, 2023

In this class, I aided students in practicing use of population modeling to determine population viability and assess population needs. This included explaining the importance of modeling and understanding the basics of statistics. From there, we taught students how to build population models with increasing levels of complexity. This included population viability analysis, logistic growth, island biogeography models, and many more.

Diary of a graduate student: What do I do and how did I get here?

Guest Lecture, University of Vermont, Rubenstein School of Environmental and Natural Resources, 2023

Gave a talk to the students of UVM’s Conservation Biology Course. This lecture discussed my research, but the focus was largely on career paths: I wanted to help students understand what it is like to work in the field of conservation biology, and tried my best to tell them all the things employers expect you to know, but never tell you.