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
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
A food web including parasites for kelp forests of the Santa Barbara Channel, California
Causes of delayed outbreak responses and their impacts on epidemic spread
Broadening the ecology of fear: Non-lethal effects arise from diverse responses to predation and parasitism
Improving the ability of a BACI design to detect impacts within a kelp‐forest community
Visualization of schistosomiasis snail habitats using light unmanned aerial vehicles
How to identify win–win interventions that benefit human health and conservation
High parasite diversity in the amphipod Gammarus lacustris in a subarctic lake
Tradeoffs with growth limit host range in complex life-cycle helminths
Calibrating environmental DNA metabarcoding to conventional surveys for measuring fish species richness
Science and Products
- Science
- Data
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- Publications
Filter Total Items: 229
Schistosome 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 BhartiA food web including parasites for kelp forests of the Santa Barbara Channel, California
We built a high-resolution topological food web for the kelp forests of the Santa Barbara Channel, California, USA that includes parasites and significantly improves resolution compared to previous webs. The 1,098 nodes and 21,956 links in the web describe an economically, socially, and ecologically vital system. Nodes are broken into life-stages, with 549 free-living life-stages (492 species fromAuthorsDana N. Morton, Cristiana Y. Antonino, Farallon J Broughton, Lauren N Dykman, Armand M. Kuris, Kevin D. LaffertyCauses of delayed outbreak responses and their impacts on epidemic spread
Livestock diseases have devastating consequences economically, socially and politically across the globe. In certain systems, pathogens remain viable after host death, which enables residual transmissions from infected carcasses. Rapid culling and carcass disposal are well-established strategies for stamping out an outbreak and limiting its impact; however, wait-times for these procedures, i.e. reAuthorsY Tao, William J. M. Probert, Katriona Shea, Michael C. Runge, Kevin D. Lafferty, Michael J. Tildesley, Matthew J. FerrariBroadening the ecology of fear: Non-lethal effects arise from diverse responses to predation and parasitism
Research on the ‘ecology of fear’ posits that defensive prey responses to avoid predation can cause non-lethal effects across ecological scales. Parasites also elicit defensive responses in hosts with associated non-lethal effects, which raises the longstanding, yet unresolved question of how non-lethal effects of parasites compare with those of predators. We developed a framework for systematicalAuthorsD R Daversa, Ryan F. Hechinger, E Madin, A Fenton, A I Dell, E G Ritchie, Timothy J. Rohrbacher, V H W Rudolf, Kevin D. LaffertyImproving the ability of a BACI design to detect impacts within a kelp‐forest community
Distinguishing between human impacts and natural variation in abundance remains difficult because most species exhibit complex patterns of variation in space and time. When ecological monitoring data are available, a before‐after‐control‐impact (BACI) analysis can control natural spatial and temporal variation to better identify an impact and estimate its magnitude. However, populations with limitAuthorsAndrew Rassweiler, Daniel K Okamoto, Daniel C. Reed, David J Kushner, Donna M Schroeder, Kevin D. LaffertyVisualization of schistosomiasis snail habitats using light unmanned aerial vehicles
Schistosomiasis, or “snail fever”, is a parasitic disease affecting over 200 million people worldwide. People become infected when exposed to water containing particular species of freshwater snails. Habitats for such snails can be mapped using lightweight, inexpensive and field-deployable consumer-grade Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones. Drones can obtain imagery in remote areAuthorsAndrew J Chamberlin, Isabel J. Jones, Andrea J Lund, Nicolas Jouanard, Gilles Riveau, Raphaël Ndione, Susanne H. Sokolow, Chelsea L. Wood, Kevin D. Lafferty, Giulio A. De LeoHow to identify win–win interventions that benefit human health and conservation
To reach the Sustainable Development Goals, we may need to act on synergies between some targets while mediating trade-offs between other targets. But what, exactly, are synergies and trade-offs, and how are they related to other outcomes, such as ‘win–win’ solutions? Finding limited guidance in the existing literature, we developed an operational method for distinguishing win–wins from eight otheAuthorsSkylar R. Hopkins, Susanne H. Sokolow, Julia C Buck, Giulio A. De Leo, Isabel J. Jones, Laura H Kwong, Christopher LeBoa, Andrea J Lund, Andrew J MacDonald, Nicole Nova, Sarah H Olson, Alison J. Peel, Chelsea L. Wood, Kevin D. LaffertyHigh parasite diversity in the amphipod Gammarus lacustris in a subarctic lake
Amphipods are often key species in aquatic food webs due to their functional roles in the ecosystem and as intermediate hosts for trophically transmitted parasites. Amphipods can also host many parasite species, yet few studies address the entire parasite community of a gammarid population, precluding a more dynamic understanding of the food web. We set out to identify and quantify the parasite coAuthorsJenny C. Shaw, Eirik H. Henriksen, Rune Knudsen, Jesper A. Kuhn, Armand M. Kuris, Kevin D. Lafferty, Anna Siwertsson, Miroslava Soldánová, Per‐Arne AmundsenTradeoffs with growth limit host range in complex life-cycle helminths
Parasitic worms with complex life cycles have several developmental stages, with each stage creating opportunities to infect additional host species. Using a dataset for 973 species of trophically transmitted acanthocephalans, cestodes, and nematodes, we confirmed that worms with longer life cycles (i.e. more successive hosts) infect a greater diversity of host species and taxa (after controllingAuthorsDaniel P. Benesh, Geoffrey G. Parker, James C Chubb, Kevin D. LaffertyCalibrating environmental DNA metabarcoding to conventional surveys for measuring fish species richness
The ability to properly identify species present in a landscape is foundational to ecology and essential for natural resource management and conservation. However, many species are often unaccounted for due to ineffective direct capture and visual surveys, especially in aquatic environments. Environmental DNA metabarcoding is an approach that overcomes low detection probabilities and should conseqAuthorsMary E McElroy, Terra L Dressler, Georgia C Titcomb, Emily A Wilson, Kristy Deiner, Tom L. Dudley, Erika J. Eliason, Nathan T Evans, Steven D Gaines, Kevin D. Lafferty, Gary A Lamberti, Yiyuan Li, David M. Lodge, Milton S. Love, Andrew R. Mahon, Michael E Pfrender, Mark A Renshaw, Kimberly A Selkoe, Christopher L. Jerde - 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