Influence of weather, environment, and infection on gastropod intermediate hosts of parelaphostrongylid nematodes
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Temporal and spatial variation in the transmission of parelaphostrongylid nematodes (brainworm (Parelaphostrongylus tenuis), muscle worm (Parelaphostrongylus andersoni)) is regulated by the environment and their hosts. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are the primary ungulate host, depositing first-stage larvae into the environment. Gastropods (slugs and snails) are required by these parasites for development to the stage that infects ungulates. Gastropod distributions vary temporally and in response to environmental variation, but further characterization is needed. Habitat preferences of infected gastropods remain unknown due to low prevalence observed in naturally infected hosts. The first chapter used transect sampling to investigate the effect of temporal variation and several environmental factors on gastropod presence and abundance in habitat where moose (Alces alces) are recovering after population decline. Site and month influenced gastropod species composition, driven by three host species (Deroceras laeve, Succinea ovalis, Zonitoides arboreus). Statistical modelling explained gastropod presence better than abundance. Presence varied spatially and was positively correlated with soil pH and humidity, being most likely at a site where deer are absent, indicating that transmission risk would increase if deer were to begin occupying it. The second chapter concerned gastropod microhabitat preferences and vertical climbing behaviour in an urban park and forest inhabited by deer infected with parelaphostrongylids. From June-October, gastropod presence increased and was associated with higher humidity. Abundance also increased over time, and was associated with higher humidity, along with lower air temperature and soil moisture. Infected gastropods were found, but none exhibited vertical climbing behaviour. These results bring further insight into parelaphostrongylid transmission by identifying factors that influence the gastropod habitat selection, which play a significant role in the life cycles of these parasites. Population declines in wild North American ungulates of conservation concern may be caused in part by the pathology and mortality resulting from infection with parelaphostrongylid nematodes.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".