Parasites showed up as shadows against the light background of the maintained muscle, allowing the researchers to get rid of and identify them under a magnifying glass or microscope.While previous studies have actually been able to identify parasites in maintained fish specimens– some of them centuries or years old– those studies offered little insight into the parasites abundance.Over the previous couple of years, the laboratory has continued to improve the method and apply it to a higher number and range of samples. “These sorts of methods, to look back in the past at where parasites were and what their abundance was, and connecting that with host irregularity, environmental variability, its simply so crucial to start to build this photo about how parasites are altering,” adds Brian.A specimen of rockfish collected in the 1970s, in the University of Alaska Museum of the NorthKatie LeslieThe Wood laboratory is now working on its largest analysis of fish parasites yet, covering lots of parasite types and covering 130 years of the history of Puget Sound in the Pacific Northwest. Wood says she expects the upcoming research study to supply much more insight into ecological change for both parasites and their hosts over the past century.In addition to maintained fish, museum-kept mammal specimens are likewise showing to be helpful for the historical study of parasites and disease.
For University of Washington (UW) ecologist Chelsea Wood, nevertheless, the most interesting things in those thousands of containers arent the fish themselves, but the parasites they carried in and on their bodies.Wood and her laboratory are studying these tiny animals to address a long-debated concern: How has the abundance of parasites changed over time? While previous studies have been able to discover parasites in maintained fish specimens– some of them years or centuries old– those research studies offered little insight into the parasites abundance. Parasites revealed up as shadows against the light background of the maintained muscle, enabling the researchers to remove and recognize them under a magnifying glass or microscope.While previous research studies have been able to identify parasites in preserved fish specimens– some of them centuries or years old– those studies gave little insight into the parasites abundance.Over the past couple of years, the lab has actually continued to fine-tune the strategy and apply it to a greater number and range of samples. “These sorts of techniques, to look back in the past at where parasites were and what their abundance was, and connecting that with host variability, environmental irregularity, its simply so crucial to begin to build this photo about how parasites are changing,” includes Brian.A specimen of rockfish gathered in the 1970s, in the University of Alaska Museum of the NorthKatie LeslieThe Wood lab is now working on its biggest analysis of fish parasites yet, covering lots of parasite types and spanning 130 years of the history of Puget Sound in the Pacific Northwest. Wood says she expects the upcoming research study to provide much more insight into ecological modification for both parasites and their hosts over the previous century.In addition to preserved fish, museum-kept mammal specimens are likewise showing to be helpful for the historic research study of parasites and disease.
