Ecological Parasitology: Reflections on 50 Years of Research in Aquatic Ecosystems

195 Pages·2015·4.54 MB·English

by  Gerald W. Esch

Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Preface
Acknowledgments
The Players
Microbiographies
Closing comments
References
1 The Beginning
References
2 The End of the Beginning
References
3 Gull Lake and the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station
References
4 Gull Lake and the Connection with the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory
References
5 Development of Some Conceptual Notions
References
6 The Pond: Part I
References
7 The Pond: Part II
References
8 The Big Lake
References
9 The Strigeids
References
10 Some Small Streams and Small Ponds
References
11 Red Sore Disease
References
12 The End, Almost
References
13 The Catastrophic Collapse of the Larval Trematode Component Community in Charlie’s
Pond (North Carolina)
References
14 An Epilogue: What’s Involved with Graduate School?
What to look for if you are being recruited
Planning your program
The student’s advisory committees
Special skill requirements
Handling the special exams
Writing and defending the thesis/dissertation
Publishing papers and selection of the journal
Collaboration
Graduation (and sometimes a postdoc experience)
Would you do it again?
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Preface
Figure 0.1 A photo taken at the Americana Hotel, San Juan, Puerto Rico, November
1966, 41st annual meeting, the American Society of Parasitologists. From left to right:
me, Ann Esch, Horace Bailey, Jayne Bailey, Sue McDaniel, Jim McDaniel, Mrs. Ida
Self, Dr. J. Teague Self, and Karen Janovy.
Chapter 01
Figure 1.1 A coenurus of Taenia multiceps. The bladder was about twice the size of an
ordinary golf ball. Note that the scolices are in several rows (hence the old name
Multiceps [many heads] serialis [in a series of rows]). The coenurus was removed
from a jackrabbit shot on the shortgrass prairie of eastern Colorado during my senior
year at Colorado College.
Figure 1.2 A cysticercus of Taenia crassiceps, about 5 mm in size, from top to bottom.
This cysticercus belongs to the anomalous Ontario Research Foundation (ORF) strain
isolated by Reino (Ray) Freeman at the University of Toronto. The scolex development
has begun at the top, but it would not have proceeded any further than what can be seen
here. Exogenous budding is occurring at the other end.
Chapter 03
Figure 3.1 Gull lake adjacent to the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station in Michigan.
Researchers at the lab had primary access to the boat present in the foreground.
Chapter 04
Figure 4.1 Par Pond on the Savannah River Plant site in South Carolina. In the
foreground is a “shocking boat.” The craft was equipped with a generator for
producing electricity used for stunning fish in water ahead of the boat. The
electroshocked fish are stunned and rise to the surface where they are removed from the
water with a dip net and then deposited in a large tub carried in the boat. In an hour of
shocking, 50 largemouth bass could be easily captured, without killing them.
Chapter 06
Figure 6.1 Charlie’s Pond in North Carolina. The pond was probably created during
construction of the cooling reservoir (Belews Lake) in 1970. Our research first began
in the pond during 1983 when Amy Crews and I began collecting snails.
Figure 6.2 Two cercariae of Halipegus occidualis. The delivery tube and body of the
trematode are still inside the tail.
Figure 6.3 In an explosive episode, a delivery tube emerges, and simultaneously, the
body of the cercaria is shot through the tube and into the hemocoel of an ostracod.
Figure 6.4 Using its ventral sucker, the adult Hal. occidualis attaches to tissue at the
bottom of the mouth and under the tongue of green fogs, Rana clamitans.
Figure 6.5 A green frog, R. clamitans.
Figure 6.6 The life cycle of Hal. occidualis.
Chapter 08
Figure 8.1 A group of students take a look at Belews Lake. Charlie’s Pond is located
behind them, about 20 m away.
Chapter 09
Figure 9.1 Lepomis macrochirus with black spot, each of which is a metacercaria of
Uvulifer ambloplitis.
Chapter 11
Figure 11.1 Lesions on the surface of Micropterus salmoides, caused by Aeromonas
hydrophila.
Chapter 12
Figure 12.1 Male and female Daubaylia potomaca, rhabditid nematodes of Helisoma
anceps in Mallard Lake, North Carolina. (a) The females are slightly larger than males
and are easily distinguished by the hooklike posterior end of the body. (b) Males
possess a gubernaculum and spicule.
Chapter 13
Figure 13.1 Rarefied species richness. Mean species richness and 95% confidence
intervals were calculated using 2000 replicates (random samples without replacement)
for a sample size of 275 (the sample size for 2013). The dashed line marks the species
richness for the 2013 sample. Raw data were used for 1984, 2002, 2006, 2012, and
2014.
Figure 13.2 (a) East bank of Charlie’s Pond showing emergent vegetation in 1988.
(This location matches site 24 in Zelmer et al. (1999).) (b) West cove of Charlie’s
Pond showing vegetation in 1988. (This location matches site 15 in Zelmer et al.
(1999).) (c) East bank of Charlie’s Pond without vegetation in 2014. (d) Northwest
cove of Charlie’s Pond without vegetation in 2014.
Ecological Parasitology: Reflections on 50 Years of
Research in Aquatic Ecosystems
Gerald W. Esch
Charles M. Allen, Professor of Biology
Department of Biology
Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA
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Dedicated to the memory of my friend, Professor Ralph D. Amen, who died just a few months
ago following a friendship of some 50 years. Unfortunately, my “personal editor” was not
able to help me this time.
Preface
From the beginning of my academic career nearly 50 years ago, I have been blessed by strong
associations with quality graduate and undergraduate students. Throughout this period, it has
been my pleasure to watch them successfully apply their efforts in both the field and the
laboratory.
Over the past several years, I have given serious thought to writing about their research
experiences and my connection to them. Ward Cooper was a Senior Commissioning Editor at
Wiley-Blackwell. I have known him for many years, and he has enthusiastically helped me
with other projects along the way. A couple of years ago, I persuaded Ward that stories I
wanted to tell about my students and their research were estimable and worthy of incorporating
into a book. He agreed and was able to convince the “editorial group” at Wiley-Blackwell to
support its publication.
Necessarily, some of what I have written for the present book also involves my professional
beginning, making the first couple of chapters seem like the book will be autobiographical, but
it isn’t. As I will emphasize later, there is no way of separating my career from the beginning
of theirs. They are naturally intertwined. I have also included descriptions of contributions
made to my career and to those of my students by some of my nonstudent collaborators,
mentors, and colleagues. The group includes some really great people, for example, Robert
(“Doc”) Stabler, Mary Alice Hamilton, J. Teague Self, Jim McDaniel, MacWilson Warren, Jim
Hendricks, George Lauff, Desmond Smyth, Clive Kennedy, Whit Gibbons, Darwin Murrell, Al
Shostak, Ray Kuhn, Ron Dimock Jr., Dick Seed, and Al Bush. All of these people, plus some
others who I will identify in the text, have touched my personal and professional life in one
way or another, and I feel that I am in debt to them for contributing to whatever successes my
students and I have had along the way.
Foremost, however, thoughts regarding my career always return to my students and what they
did in the way of research when they were graduate students with me here at Wake Forest.
Without exception, they were bright, self-starters, hard working, innovative, and loyal. During
my career, I take pride in knowing that I have had just two students leave my lab without
achieving the success of securing their advanced degree.
In 1966, the American Society of Parasitologists held our annual meeting in San Juan, Puerto
Rico. I recall it quite well. For one thing, it was the first time I had ever flown. My wife, Ann,
and I drove to Baltimore and stayed with our friends, Bill and Sally Cline, the night before we
were to head for San Juan aboard an Eastern Airlines Electra turboprop aircraft. My wife was
a veteran flyer and felt it would be best to drive to Baltimore and then fly from there rather
than taking my first plane trip in a smaller aircraft. Moreover, Bill was a physician and
promised to provide me with some sort of remedy that would calm my nerves on flight day.
Unfortunately, on arrival at the airport, we learned that a windshield on the plane had cracked
on landing in Newark on its way to Baltimore and was about four hours late—by that time, the
effects of the drug had worn off. I must admit that it was still a great first flight!
The best part of the San Juan meeting was a dinner on the veranda of the Americana Hotel in
which we were staying. Dr. and Mrs. Self, John and Karen Janovy, Jim and Sue McDaniel,
Horace and Jayne Bailey, and my wife, Ann, and were there (Figure 0.1) (John, Jim, Horace,
and I were all Dr. Self’s graduate students). The evening was warm, but not hot. There was a
gentle breeze blowing in off the ocean, and the sun was setting in the west. In other words, it
was beautiful! Dr. Self was feeling pretty good (he was a scotch drinker) but was in very good
control. We talked about the importance of professional meetings and why we students should
attend regularly. I remember Dr. Self nostalgically looking around the table before saying, “I
really enjoy coming to these meetings. It gives me the opportunity to bask in the reflected glory
of my students.” This statement is the perfect description of well-deserved pride in the success
a student brings to their mentor, whether at a professional meeting or in the research they
accomplish. I have never forgotten this feeling. It is another reason I wanted to write this book.
Figure 0.1 A photo taken at the Americana Hotel, San Juan, Puerto Rico, November 1966, 41st
annual meeting, the American Society of Parasitologists. From left to right: me, Ann Esch,
Horace Bailey, Jayne Bailey, Sue McDaniel, Jim McDaniel, Mrs. Ida Self, Dr. J. Teague Self,
and Karen Janovy.
Photo courtesy of John Janovy, Jr.