I have two main research streams: the evolutionary and ecological effects of climate change on species reproductive traits and antimicrobial resistance. I haven't talked about my current project on antimicrobial resistance in a long time. In 2018, I attended a workshop on a UK-Argentina joint funding programme in Buenos Aires. At the workshop, I met Helen West and the rest, is history. Helen and I, together with Andrew Singer (CEH Wallingford), Dov Stekel (Dov and Helen at the University of Nottingham) and Lisa Collins (University of Leeds) put together a bid to study antimicrobial resistance in poultry in Argentina. Our project was funded in 2019, but then was delayed by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. To cut a long story short, project work slowly resumed over the course of 2021, and now we are beginning to see the early fruits of our work. In 2021, Lisa and I, interviewed for a postdoc to be employed on the project and were delighted to appoint Dr Paula Avello Fernandez. Paula is a mathematician and is originally from Chile, which is an incredible asset for our project. With the work in the chicken sheds delayed in Argentina, and therefore temporarily missing precious modelling data, Paula threw herself into the part of the project that I lead: policy. Having reviewed key antimicrobial resistance policy documents from all of South America, Paula is almost ready to submit her first manuscript from this project. With COVID-lockdowns and teaching commitments, I had not been able to meet Paula in person. We finally remedied to that this month, when we met over coffee and had a lovely in-person chat!
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With the simulated heatwaves experiments well under way, and the behavioural experiments finally progressing, we can breathe a sigh of relief. Since Sofia Gigliotti joined us in April 2022, we have been so busy preparing experiments, sourcing caterpillars and setting up the field study, that this is my first post in four months and Sofia has left us! However, it is a sign that we have been working very hard to make our British Ecological Society-funded large project work.
Jamie Smith has been in charge of looking after the Pieris brassicae pupae. He has released them in their field enclosure and they have mated, produced eggs and the caterpillars have successfully hatched. He has then set up the simulated heatwave experiments and is attempting cross-matings between heated individuals and controls. Fingers crossed it works out! Meanwhile Electra is investigating the behavioural thermoregulation of caterpillars. Originally we were hoping to use large white (P. brassicae) too, but we had to source some new ones when the first batch died - I do wonder whether our heated diapause caused them physiological stress (see for example, this new work by Nielsen et al 2022 on Pieris napi). Electra has worked against all odds as two more batches of caterpillars did not make it! She is now working with a third batch sourced from the wild, and things are finally looking better. |
AuthorGraziella Iossa Archives
August 2023
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