In my research projects in ecology, I’m seeking to understand how interactions between birds and their parasites are affected by environmental degradation linked to human activities such as deforestation, intensive agriculture or climate change. This human impact has caused land cover and climate conditions to change, which has repercussions both on bird populations and on insects (such as mosquitoes) that spread pathogens to birds.
To gather data, I go on field trips with teammates and capture birds and mosquitoes (also known as “vectors”) in habitats with varying degrees of degradation and different environmental characteristics. This allows me to describe the diversity of parasites in natural populations and compare the proportion of infected birds in contrasting habitats.