Kevin Lafferty
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
Small estuarine fishes feed on large trematode cercariae: Lab and field investigations
Acceptance of the 2009 Henry Baldwin Ward Medal: The accidental parasitologist
Differential escape from parasites by two competing introduced crabs
Cascading effects of fishing on Galapagos rocky reef communities: reanalysis using corrected data
The assembly, collapse and restoration of food webs
Diversity increases biomass production for trematode parasites in snails
Ecosystem consequences of fish parasites
Reef fishes have higher parasite richness at unfished Palmyra Atoll compared to fished Kiritimati Island
Homage to Linnaeus: How many parasites? How many hosts?
Parasites in food webs: the ultimate missing links
Trematodes indicate animal biodiversity in the chilean intertidal and Lake Tanganyika
Ecosystem energetic implications of parasite and free-living biomass in three estuaries
Science and Products
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Filter Total Items: 229
Small estuarine fishes feed on large trematode cercariae: Lab and field investigations
In aquatic ecosystems, dense populations of snails can shed millions of digenean trematode cercariae every day. These short-lived, free-living larvae are rich in energy and present a potential resource for consumers. We investigated whether estuarine fishes eat cercariae shed by trematodes of the estuarine snail Cerithidea californica. In aquaria we presented cercariae from 10 native trematode speAuthorsA.T. Kaplan, S. Rebhal, K. D. Lafferty, A. M. KurisAcceptance of the 2009 Henry Baldwin Ward Medal: The accidental parasitologist
Members of the Society, President Conn, colleagues, friends, and particularly students, the Ward Medal recipient, from Clarke Read onward, traditionally recounts how their career was shaped. A decade ago, in a crumbling Kona hotel, the ASP's own tattooed lady, Janine Caira, opened her Ward Medal address with: “To all future Ward Medalists, many of whom I trust are sitting in the audience out thereAuthorsKevin D. LaffertyDifferential escape from parasites by two competing introduced crabs
Although introduced species often interact with one another in their novel communities, the role of parasites in these interactions remains less clear. We examined parasite richness and prevalence in 2 shorecrab species with different invasion histories and residency times in an introduced region where their distributions overlap broadly. On the northeastern coast of the USA, the Asian shorecrab HAuthorsApril M. Blakeslee, Carolyn L. Keogh, James E. Byers, Armand M. Kuris, Kevin D. Lafferty, Mark E. TorchinCascading effects of fishing on Galapagos rocky reef communities: reanalysis using corrected data
This article replaces Sonnenholzner et al. (2007; Mar Ecol Prog Ser 343:77–85), which was retracted on September 19, 2007, due to errors in entry of data on sea urchins. We sampled 10 highly fished and 10 (putatively) lightly fished shallow rocky reefs in the southeastern area of the Galapagos Marine Reserve, Ecuador. After the correction, these are the new results: there was a negative associatioAuthorsJorge I. Sonnenholzner, Lydia B. Ladah, Kevin D. LaffertyThe assembly, collapse and restoration of food webs
Darwin chose the metaphor of a 'tangled bank' to conclude the 'Origin of species'. Two centuries after Darwin's birth, we are still untangling the complex ecological networks he has pondered. In particular, studies of food webs provide important insights into how natural ecosystems function (Pascual & Dunne 2005). Although the nonlinear interactions between many species creates challenges of scaleAuthorsAndy Dobson, Stefano Allesina, Kevin Lafferty, Mercedes PascualDiversity increases biomass production for trematode parasites in snails
Increasing species diversity typically increases biomass in experimental assemblages. But there is uncertainty concerning the mechanisms of diversity effects and whether experimental findings are relevant to ecological process in nature. Hosts for parasites provide natural, discrete replicates of parasite assemblages. We considered how diversity affects standing-stock biomass for a highly interactAuthorsRyan F. Hechinger, Kevin D. Lafferty, Armand M. KurisEcosystem consequences of fish parasites
In most aquatic ecosystems, fishes are hosts to parasites and, sometimes, these parasites can affect fish biology. Some of the most dramatic cases occur when fishes are intermediate hosts for larval parasites. For example, fishes in southern California estuaries are host to many parasites. The most common of these parasites, Euhaplorchis californiensis, infects the brain of the killifish FundulusAuthorsKevin D. LaffertyReef fishes have higher parasite richness at unfished Palmyra Atoll compared to fished Kiritimati Island
We compared parasite communities at two coral atolls in the Line Islands chain of the central Pacific (Kiritimati Island and Palmyra Atoll). Palmyra Atoll is relatively pristine while Kiritimati Island is heavily fished. At each island, we sampled five fish species for helminth and arthropod endoparasites: Chromis margaritifer, Plectroglyphidodon dickii,Paracirrhites arcatus, Acanthurus nigricans,AuthorsKevin D. Lafferty, Jenny C. Shaw, Armand M. KurisHomage to Linnaeus: How many parasites? How many hosts?
Estimates of the total number of species that inhabit the Earth have increased significantly since Linnaeus's initial catalog of 20,000 species. The best recent estimates suggest that there are ≈6 million species. More emphasis has been placed on counts of free-living species than on parasitic species. We rectify this by quantifying the numbers and proportion of parasitic species. We estimate thatAuthorsAndy Dobson, Kevin D. Lafferty, Armand M. Kuris, Ryan F. Hechinger, Walter JetzParasites in food webs: the ultimate missing links
Parasitism is the most common consumer strategy among organisms, yet only recently has there been a call for the inclusion of infectious disease agents in food webs. The value of this effort hinges on whether parasites affect food-web properties. Increasing evidence suggests that parasites have the potential to uniquely alter food-web topology in terms of chain length, connectance and robustness.AuthorsKevin D. Lafferty, Stefano Allesina, Matias Arim, Cherie J. Briggs, Giulio A. De Leo, Andrew P. Dobson, Jennifer A. Dunne, Pieter T.J. Johnson, Armand M. Kuris, David J. Marcogliese, Neo D. Martinez, Jane Memmott, Pablo A. Marquet, John P. McLaughlin, Eerin A. Mordecai, Mercedes Pascual, Robert Poulin, David W. ThieltgesTrematodes indicate animal biodiversity in the chilean intertidal and Lake Tanganyika
Trematode communities in populations of estuarine snails can reflect surrounding animal diversity, abundance, and trophic interactions. We know less about the potential for trematodes to serve as bioindicators in other habitats. Here, we reanalyze data from 2 published studies concerning trematodes, 1 in the Chilean rocky intertidal zone and the other from the East African rift lake, Lake TanganyiAuthorsR. F. Hechinger, K. D. Lafferty, A. M. KurisEcosystem energetic implications of parasite and free-living biomass in three estuaries
Parasites can have strong impacts but are thought to contribute little biomass to ecosystems. We quantified the biomass of free-living and parasitic species in three estuaries on the Pacific coast of California and Baja California. Here we show that parasites have substantial biomass in these ecosystems. We found that parasite biomass exceeded that of top predators. The biomass of trematodes was pAuthorsArmand M. Kuris, Ryan F. Hechinger, Jenny C. Shaw, Kathleen L. Whitney, Leopoldina Aguirre-Macedo, Charlie A. Boch, Andrew P. Dobson, Eleca J. Dunham, Brian L. Fredensborg, Todd C. Huspeni, Julio Lorda, Luzviminda Mababa, Frank T. Mancini, Adrienne B. Mora, Maria Pickering, Nadia L. Talhouk, Mark E. Torchin, Kevin D. Lafferty - 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