EEB Faculty Index

Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Earth & Marine Sciences A308
Phone: 831.459.5358
Fax: 831.459.5353
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A. MARM KILPATRICK Assistant Professor of EEBiology B.S., University of California, Los Angeles M.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison Senior Research Scientist, Consortium for Conservation Medicine, New York

Center for Ocean Health 100 Shaffer Road University of California Santa Cruz, CA 95060 Phone: 831.459.XXXX Fax: 831.459.3383 marm@biology.ucsc.edu

Ecology of Infectious Diseases & Population Biology

My research unites theory and empirical work to address basic and applied questions on the ecology of infectious diseases as well as population biology, evolution, climate, behavior, genetics, and conservation, and I would be excited to develop collaborations and advise graduate students in any of these areas. A key aim is to understand the underlying drivers of pathogen transmission and the impacts on host populations. My general research philosophy is to begin each project by developing a model of the system to generate hypotheses and then test these hypotheses by gathering empirical data. My current research can be divided into three general areas: 1) Local determinants of pathogen transmission, 2) The impact of disease on animal populations and 3) The spread of pathogens to new regions. Much of my current work in disease ecology is focused on West Nile virus, a mosquito-transmitted pathogen that currently causes thousands of human cases each year, as well as affecting millions of animals. However, I also work on several other pathogen systems including chytridiomycosis, Lyme disease, Brucellosis, and avian influenza.

Selected Publications

Selected publications (reverse chronological order; all of my publications can be downloaded from http://www.conservationmedicine.org/marm_kilpatrick.htm)

Kilpatrick, A.M., Meola, M.A., Moudy, R.M., Kramer, L.D. 2008. Temperature, viral genetics, and the transmission of West Nile virus by Culex pipiens mosquitoes. PLoS Pathogens 4(6) e1000092

Gomez, A., A.M. Kilpatrick, L.D. Kramer, A.P. Dupuis, M.J. Jones, S.J. Goetz, P.P. Marra, P.Daszak, A.A.Aguirre. 2008. Land use and West Nile virus seroprevalence in wild mammals.  Emerging Infectious Diseases 14(6): 962-5

Kilpatrck, A.M., LaDeau, S.L., Marra, P.P. 2007 The ecology and impact of West Nile virus in the Western Hemisphere. Auk 124(4):1121-1136

Kilpatrick, A.M., L.D. Kramer, M.J. Jones, P.P. Marra, P. Daszak, D.M. Fonseca. 2007. Genetic influences on mosquito feeding behavior and the emergence of zoonotic pathogens Am J Tropical Medicine & Hygiene 77(4) 667-671

LaDeau, S.L., A.M. Kilpatrick, P.P. Marra. 2007. West Nile virus emergence and large-scale declines of North American bird populations. Nature (447) 710-713

Kilpatrick, A.M., A.A. Chmura, D.W. Gibbons, R.C. Fleischer, P.P. Marra, P. Daszak. 2006. Predicting the global spread of H5N1 avian influenza. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 103 (51) 19368-19373

Kilpatrick, A.M., P. Daszak, M.J. Jones, P.P. Marra, L.D. Kramer. 2006. Host heterogeneity dominates West Nile virus transmission. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 273 (1599) 2327-2333

Kilpatrick, A.M., L.D. Kramer, M.J. Jones, P.P. Marra, P. Daszak. 2006. West Nile virus epidemics in North America are driven by shifts in mosquito feeding behavior PLoS Biology 4(4) 606-610

Kilpatrick, A.M., P. Daszak, S.J. Goodman, H. Rogg, L.D. Kramer, V. Cedeno, A.A. Cunningham. 2006. Predicting pathogen introduction: West Nile virus spread to Galápagos Conservation Biology 20 (4): 1224-1231

Kilpatrick, A.M., D. LaPointe, C.T. Atkinson, B.L. Woodworth, J.K. Lease, M.E. Reiter, K. Gross. 2006. Effects of chronic avian malaria (Plasmodium relictum) infection on the reproductive success of Hawaii Amakihi (Hemignathus virens). Auk 123 (3): 764-774

Kilpatrick, A.M. 2006. Facilitating the evolution of resistance to avian malaria (Plasmodium relictum) in Hawaiian birds. Biological Conservation 128(4) 475-485

Kilpatrick, A.M., W.A. Mitchell, W.P. Porter, D. Currie. 2006. Testing a mechanistic hypothesis for the latitudinal gradient in mammalian species diversity. Evolutionary Ecology Research 8(2) 333-344

Daszak, P., D.E. Scott, A.M. Kilpatrick, C. Faggioni, J.W. Gibbons, D. Porter. 2005. Amphibian population declines at the Savannah River Site are linked to climate, not chytridiomycosis. Ecology 86(12) 3232-7

Kilpatrick, A.M., L.D. Kramer, S. Campbell, E.O. Alleyne, A.P. Dobson, P. Daszak. 2005. West Nile Virus Risk Assessment and the Bridge Vector Paradigm. Emerging Infectious Diseases 11(3) 425-9

Kilpatrick, A.M., Y. Gluzberg, J. Burgett, and P. Daszak. 2004. A quantitative risk assessment of the pathways by which West Nile virus could reach Hawaii. Ecohealth 1(2) 205-209

Marra, P.P., S. Griffing, C.L. Caffrey, A.M. Kilpatrick, R.G. McLean, C. Brand, E. Saito, A.P. Dupuis, L.D. Kramer, R. Novak. 2004. West Nile Virus and Wildlife. Bioscience 54(5) 393-402

Kilpatrick, A.M., A.R. Ives. 2003. Species interactions can explain Taylor’s power law for ecological time series. Nature 422: 65-68

Kilpatrick, A.M. 2003. The impact of thermoregulatory costs on foraging behaviour: a test with American Crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) and eastern grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis). Evolutionary Ecology Research 5: 781-786

Kilpatrick, A.M. 2002. Variation in growth of Brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) nestlings and energetic impacts on their host parents. Canadian Journal of Zoology 80: 145-153