Dr. Keving Lafferty is a Senior Ecologist with the Western Ecological Research Center.
His main interest lies in how parasites affect ecosystems and, in turn, how ecosystems affect parasites. He is also involved in research on the conservation of marine resources, investigating strategies for protecting endangered shorebirds, fish and abalone. He has also assessed the effects of marine reserves.
Dr. Lafferty received his Ph. D. in Ecological Parasitology in 1991 at University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and took a post doc with the National Marine Sanctuary and a research position at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is presently a Marine Ecologist for the USGS at the Channel Islands Field Station. As a UCSB adjunct faculty member, the university's Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology generously provides for Dr. Lafferty's office and laboratory space in the Marine Lab. He advises graduate students in Marine Ecology, but has no formal teaching assignments.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Conservation biology
- Invasive species ecology
- Nearshore marine ecology
- Parasite ecology
- Wetland ecology
Professional Experience
Marine Ecologist, USGS, Western Ecological Science Center, Jul 1998-Present
Assistant Adj. Prof., UCSB, Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, Jul 1998-Present
Assist. Research Biologist, UCSB Marine Science Institute, Jun 1996-Jul 1998
Assist. Research Biologist, UCLA, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Jun 1994-Jul 1998
Assist. Research Biologist, UCSB, Marine Science Institute, Jan 1993-May 1994
Post Doctoral Researcher, National Marine Sanctuaries Program, Jan 1992-Dec 1992
Education and Certifications
Ph.D., Ecology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 1991
M.A., Zoology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 1988
B.A., Aquatic Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 1985
Affiliations and Memberships*
Amercian Society of Parasitologists
American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists
California Botanical Society
Ecological Society of America
Ecological Society of America
Natural Areas Association
Western Society of Naturalists
Science and Products
Tracking Bats and Coronaviruses
Ecology of Infectious Diseases
Ecology of California's Sandy Beaches
Palmyra National Wildlife Refuge Ecology
Santa Barbara Field Station
Kelp Forest Community Ecology
Densovirus Calculated as Culprit Killing Sea Stars
Does Biodiversity Protect Humans Against Infectious Disease?
Site table and bias corrections for Coastal Data Information Program (CDIP) hind casts at the California Channel Islands
Hourly wave-height observations from 2013 to 2017 at 32 sites throughout the Channel Islands National Park and San Nicolas Island
Hourly wave height and period hindcasts at 32 sites throughout the Channel Islands National Park and San Nicolas Island from 2000-2017
Monthly densities of the snail Cerithideopsis (Cerithidea) californica at Carpinteria Salt Marsh, California USA, February 2012 to January 2014
Monthly trematode infections of the snail Cerithidiopsis (Cerithidea) californica at Carpinteria Salt Marsh, California USA, February 2012 to January 2014
Bird Distribution Surveys at Carpinteria Salt Marsh, California USA, January 2012 to March 2013
Distribution and mapping of the snail Cerithideopsis (Cerithidea) californica at Carpinteria Salt Marsh, California USA, June to August 2012
Carpinteria Salt Marsh Habitat Polygons
Ecological and socioeconomic factors associated with the human burden of environmentally mediated pathogens: A global analysis
Evidence gaps and diversity among potential win–win solutions for conservation and human infectious disease control
Future directions to manage wildlife health in a changing climate
Evaluation of MPA designs that protect highly mobile megafauna now and under climate change scenarios
Complex life-cycles in trophically transmitted helminths: Do the benefits of increased growth and transmission outweigh generalism and complexity costs?
Predator–prey interactions of terrestrial invertebrates are determined by predator body size and species identity
Dermal denticle shedding rates vary between two captive shark species
Transforming Palmyra Atoll to native-tree dominance will increase net carbon storage and reduce dissolved organic carbon reef runoff
Parasites in kelp-forest food webs increase food-chain length, complexity, and specialization, but reduce connectance
Schistosome infection in Senegal is associated with different spatial extents of risk and ecological drivers for Schistosoma haematobium and S. mansoni
Global tropical reef fish richness could decline by around half if corals are lost
Transient disease dynamics across ecological scales
Science and Products
- Science
Tracking Bats and Coronaviruses
Below are the USGS 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) research projects related to tracking bats and coronaviruses. Select tabs above for related items.Ecology of Infectious Diseases
The public is most familiar with parasites' role in spreading infectious diseases to people and domestic animals. In tropical developing countries, malaria, schistosomiasis, and other infectious diseases cause significant human suffering. While most related studies focus on treating patients, Dr. Kevin Lafferty is studying how ecology of the local environment affects transmission of infectious...Ecology of California's Sandy Beaches
WERC's Dr. Kevin Lafferty studies the food webs of California's sandy beaches, which support a network of wildlife from predators to prey. Species that depend on this habitat include the endangered western snowy plover.Palmyra National Wildlife Refuge Ecology
Palmyra Atoll is a low-lying coral atoll and National Wildlife Refuge located south/southwest of Hawaii near the equator in the central Pacific Ocean. USGS is a member of the Palmyra Atoll Research Consortium, which fosters collaborative multi- and inter-disciplinary studies by U.S. Department of the Interior agencies (USGS and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), academic institutions, and non...Santa Barbara Field Station
The Santa Barbara Channel area extends from the steep Santa Ynez Mountains on the north to the Channel Islands and adjacent continental shelf on the south and from Point Conception east to the Hueneme submarine canyon. This dynamic landscape, characterized by diverse ecosystems and both urban and rural populations, faces increasing environmental stress due to development, climate change, and...Kelp Forest Community Ecology
The near shore waters along the coast of southern California host one of the most productive marine ecosystems on earth: giant kelp forests. These complex environments provide habitat, food, and hiding places for more than 1,000 species of plants and animals, but are easily disturbed by both natural events and human activities. Strong storms, fluctuating water temperatures, coastal development...Densovirus Calculated as Culprit Killing Sea Stars
A prime suspect has been identified as a probable cause of the "Sea Star Wasting Disease," a mysterious epidemic that has been killing these animals in droves along the U.S. and Canadian Pacific Coast. Researchers from Cornell University, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and other institutions published their findings on this "sea star associated densovirus (SSaDV)" in the December 2014 issue of...Does Biodiversity Protect Humans Against Infectious Disease?
Conserving nature can improve human lives. From forest watersheds that perform natural filtration of drinking water to coral reefs that break tsunami waves before they flatten seaside villages, intact ecosystems provide innumerable services to human society. Might biodiversity be healthy for the ecosystem and also protect people against infectious diseases? While most disease ecologists would say... - Data
Site table and bias corrections for Coastal Data Information Program (CDIP) hind casts at the California Channel Islands
We present correction coefficients for hourly wave height and period hind casts for 32 sites throughout the Channel Islands National Park and San Nicolas Island. Each site is described in terms of its location, orientation, and transect depth. To use this table, first generate a site-specific wave height and period hind cast using the California Coastal Data Information Program (CDIP) MonitoringHourly wave-height observations from 2013 to 2017 at 32 sites throughout the Channel Islands National Park and San Nicolas Island
Hourly wave-height observations at 32 sites throughout the Channel Islands National Park and San Nicolas Island, site-specific hind casts from the Coastal Data Information Program (CDIP), and contemporary wave height, period, and direction from regional buoys taken during intervals between 2013 and 2017.Hourly wave height and period hindcasts at 32 sites throughout the Channel Islands National Park and San Nicolas Island from 2000-2017
California's Coastal Data Information Program (CDIP) has a hind cast feature that allows one to model hourly height and period at known locations back to 2000. Fitting these hindcasts to observed height and periods indicates that the hindcasts have consistent biases that can be corrected for statistically. Past work generated bias corrections for 32 sites in the Channel Islands. We use these biasMonthly densities of the snail Cerithideopsis (Cerithidea) californica at Carpinteria Salt Marsh, California USA, February 2012 to January 2014
Each month (except March 2012), we collected detailed data on the density, size distribution, and infection status of intertidal snails from ten fixed sites as part of a broader effort to understand food webs in California Estuaries. The study site was Carpinteria Salt Marsh Reserve, California USA, (University of California Natural Reserve System), which comprises 9 Ha tidal channels, 2 Ha salt fMonthly trematode infections of the snail Cerithidiopsis (Cerithidea) californica at Carpinteria Salt Marsh, California USA, February 2012 to January 2014
Each month (except March 2012), we collected detailed data on the infection status of intertidal snails from ten fixed sites as part of a broader effort to understand food webs in California Estuaries. The study site was Carpinteria Salt Marsh Reserve, California USA, (University of California Natural Reserve System), which comprises 9 Ha tidal channels, 2 Ha salt flats, 17 Ha upland habitat, 6 HaBird Distribution Surveys at Carpinteria Salt Marsh, California USA, January 2012 to March 2013
We collected detailed spatial data on birds as part of a broader effort to understand food webs in California Estuaries. The survey area was Carpinteria Salt Marsh, California USA, which comprises 9 Ha tidal channels, 2 Ha salt flats, 17 Ha upland habitat, 6 Ha tidal pans, 52 Ha vegetated marsh, and 2 Ha tidal flats. In 30 surveys, we mapped 21,486 birds comprising 88 species interacting with theDistribution and mapping of the snail Cerithideopsis (Cerithidea) californica at Carpinteria Salt Marsh, California USA, June to August 2012
We collected detailed spatial data on the density and size distribution of intertidal snails as part of a broader effort to understand food webs in California estuaries. The survey area was Carpinteria Salt Marsh, California USA, which comprises 9 Ha tidal channels, 2 Ha salt flats, 17 Ha upland habitat, 6 Ha tidal pans, 52 Ha vegetated marsh, 2 Ha tidal flats. Using nearly 4,000 transects in poteCarpinteria Salt Marsh Habitat Polygons
We identified five common habitat types in Carpinteria Salt Marsh: channels, pans (flats), marsh, salt flat and upland. We then drew polygons around each habitat type identified from a registered and orthorectified aerial photograph and created a GIS shapefile. Polygons were ground-truthed in the field. From these habitat polygons, one can use GIS applications to estimate the area of each habitat - Multimedia
- Publications
Filter Total Items: 226
Ecological and socioeconomic factors associated with the human burden of environmentally mediated pathogens: A global analysis
BackgroundBillions of people living in poverty are at risk of environmentally mediated infectious diseases—that is, pathogens with environmental reservoirs that affect disease persistence and control and where environmental control of pathogens can reduce human risk. The complex ecology of these diseases creates a global health problem not easily solved with medical treatment alone.MethodsWe quantAuthorsSusanne H. Sokolow, Nicole Nova, Isabel J. Jones, Chelsea L. Wood, Kevin D. Lafferty, Andres Garchitorena, Skylar R. Hopkins, Andrea J Lund, Andrew J MacDonald, Christopher LeBoa, Alison J. Peel, Erin A. Mordecai, Meghan E Howard, Julia C Buck, David Lopez-Carr, Michele Barry, Matthew H Bonds, Giulio A. De LeoEvidence gaps and diversity among potential win–win solutions for conservation and human infectious disease control
As sustainable development practitioners have worked to “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all” and “conserve life on land and below water”, what progress has been made with win–win interventions that reduce human infectious disease burdens while advancing conservation goals? Using a systematic literature review, we identified 46 proposed solutions, which we then investigated individAuthorsSkylar R. Hopkins, Kevin D. Lafferty, Chelsea L. Wood, Sarah H Olson, Julia C Buck, Giulio A. De Leo, Kathryn Fiorella, Johanna Fornberg, Andres Garchitorena, Isabel J. Jones, Armand Kuris, Laura H Kwong, Christopher LeBoa, Ariel Elizabeth Leon, Andrea Lund, Andrew J MacDonald, Daniel Metz, Nicole Nova, Alison J. Peel, Justin V. Remais, Tara E. Stewart Merrill, Maya Wilson, Matthew Bonds, Andrew Dobson, David Lopez-Carr, Meghan Howard, Lisa Mandle, Susanne H. SokolowFuture directions to manage wildlife health in a changing climate
In September 2019 The Economist wrote an obituary to Okjökull, a glacier in western Iceland that was declared “dead” in 2014, a victim of climate change. Although a few wildlife species have already incurred such a fate (e.g., the Bramble Cay melomys [Melomys rubicola]) (Fulton 2017), many more are on the path to climate-driven extinction (Andermann et al. 2020; Ceballos et al. 2015; He et al. 201AuthorsErik K. Hofmeister, Emily Cornelius Ruhs, Lucas Fortini, M. Camille Hopkins, Lee C. Jones, Kevin D. Lafferty, Jonathan M. Sleeman, Olivia E. LeDeeEvaluation of MPA designs that protect highly mobile megafauna now and under climate change scenarios
Marine protected area (MPA) designs, including large-scale MPAs (LSMPAs; >150,000 km2), mobile MPAs (fluid spatiotemporal boundaries), and MPA networks, may offer different benefits to species and could enhance protection by encompassing spatiotemporal scales of animal movement. We sought to understand how well LSMPAs could benefit nine highly-mobile marine species in the tropics now and into theAuthorsMorgan Elizabeth Gilmour, Josh Adams, Barbara A. Block, Jennifer E. Caselle, A. M. Friedlander, Edward T. Game, E. L. Hazen, Nick D. Holmes, Kevin D. Lafferty, S. M. Maxwell, Douglas J. McCauley, E. M. Oleson, Kenneth H. Pollock, S. A. Shaffer, N. H. Wolff, Alex WegmannComplex life-cycles in trophically transmitted helminths: Do the benefits of increased growth and transmission outweigh generalism and complexity costs?
Why do so many parasitic worms have complex life-cycles? A complex life-cycle has at least two hypothesized costs: (i) worms with longer life-cycles, i.e. more successive hosts, must be generalists at the species level, which might reduce lifetime survival or growth, and (ii) each required host transition adds to the risk that a worm will fail to complete its life-cycle. Comparing hundreds of tropAuthorsDaniel P. Benesh, James C Chubb, Kevin D. Lafferty, Geoff A ParkerPredator–prey interactions of terrestrial invertebrates are determined by predator body size and species identity
Predator–prey interactions shape ecosystems and can help maintain biodiversity. However, for many of the earth's most biodiverse and abundant organisms, including terrestrial arthropods, these interactions are difficult or impossible to observe directly with traditional approaches. Based on previous theory, it is likely that predator–prey interactions for these organisms are shaped by a combinatioAuthorsAna Miller-ter Kuile, Austen Apigo, An Bui, Bartholomew DiFiore, Elizabeth S. Forbes, Michelle Lee, Devyn Orr, Daniel L Preston, Rachel Behm, Taylor A. Bogar, Jasmine N. Childress, Rodolfo Dirzo, Maggie Klope, Kevin D. Lafferty, John Mclaughlin, Marisa F Morse, Carina Motta, Kevin Park, Katherine A. Plummer, David A. Weber, Ronny Young, Hillary S. YoungDermal denticle shedding rates vary between two captive shark species
Shark dermal scale (denticle) accumulation in the fossil record can provide information about the abundance and composition of past shark communities. Denticles are shed continuously, such that a single shark leaves a scattered composite of many isolated denticles in sediments. However, the rate of denticle shedding as well as how these rates vary among shark species with different life modes andAuthorsErin M. Dillon, Anshika Bagla, Kiera D. Plioplys, Douglas J. McCauley, Kevin D. Lafferty, Aaron O’DeaTransforming Palmyra Atoll to native-tree dominance will increase net carbon storage and reduce dissolved organic carbon reef runoff
Native forests on tropical islands have been displaced by non-native species, leading to calls for their transformation. Simultaneously, there is increasing recognition that tropical forests can help sequester carbon that would otherwise enter the atmosphere. However, it is unclear if native forests sequester more or less carbon than human-altered landscapes. At Palmyra Atoll, efforts are underwayAuthorsKate Longley-Wood, Mary Engels, Kevin D. Lafferty, John P. McLaughlin, Alex WegmannParasites in kelp-forest food webs increase food-chain length, complexity, and specialization, but reduce connectance
We explored whether parasites are important in kelp forests by examining their effects on a high-quality, high-resolution kelp-forest food web. After controlling for generic effects of network size, parasites affected kelp-forest food web structure in some ways consistent with other systems. Parasites increased the trophic span of the web, increasing top predator vulnerability and the longest chaiAuthorsDana N. Morton, Kevin D. LaffertySchistosome infection in Senegal is associated with different spatial extents of risk and ecological drivers for Schistosoma haematobium and S. mansoni
Schistosome parasites infect more than 200 million people annually, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, where people may be co-infected with more than one species of the parasite. Infection risk for any single species is determined, in part, by the distribution of its obligate intermediate host snail. As the World Health Organization reprioritizes snail control to reduce the global burden of schistosomiAuthorsIsabel J. Jones, Susanne H. Sokolow, Andrew J Chamberlin, Andrea J Lund, Nicolas Jouanard, Lydie Bandagny, Raphaël Ndione, Simon Senghor, Anne-Marie Schacht, Gilles Riveau, Skylar R. Hopkins, Jason R. Rohr, Justin V. Remais, Kevin D. Lafferty, Armand M. Kuris, Chelsea L. Wood, Giulio A. De LeoGlobal tropical reef fish richness could decline by around half if corals are lost
Reef fishes are a treasured part of marine biodiversity, and also provide needed protein for many millions of people. Although most reef fishes might survive projected increases in ocean temperatures, corals are less tolerant. A few fish species strictly depend on corals for food and shelter, suggesting that coral extinctions could lead to some secondary fish extinctions. However, secondary extincAuthorsGiovanni Strona, Kevin D. Lafferty, Simone Fattorini, Pieter S.A. Beck, Francois Guilhaumon, Roberto Arrigoni, Simone Montano, Davide Seveso, Paolo Galli, Serge Planes, Valeriano ParraviciniTransient disease dynamics across ecological scales
Analyses of transient dynamics are critical to understanding infectious disease transmission and persistence. Identifying and predicting transients across scales, from within-host to community-level patterns, plays an important role in combating ongoing epidemics and mitigating the risk of future outbreaks. Moreover, greater emphases on non-asymptotic processes will enable timely evaluations of wiAuthorsYun Tao, Jessica L Hite, Kevin D. Lafferty, David J D Earn, Nita Bharti - News
*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government