Robert Poulin

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Robert Poulin is an evolutionary ecologist specialising in the ecology of parasitism. He is a professor of zoology at the University of Otago and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Contents

Biography

Poulin grew up in Canada, taking his bachelor's degree in aquatic biology at McGill University, Montreal and gaining his doctorate at Université Laval, Quebec City. He became a researcher in Quebec. [1] He moved to New Zealand in 1992, where he is a professor of zoology, leading a research group studying the ecology of parasites at the University of Otago. [2]

He has written numerous papers and book chapters: his Evolutionary Ecology of Parasites has been cited at least 2500 times; his co-written Parasites in food webs: the ultimate missing links has been cited over 990 times; his The diversity of parasites has been cited over 760 times; his Parasite Biodiversity and Parasitism and group size in social animals: a meta-analysis have each been cited over 600 times; 14 other works have been cited over 300 times each. In all he has been cited over 44,000 times, with an h-index over 105 and an i10-index over 550. [3]

Poulin is married with two sons. [1]

Awards and distinctions

Poulin became a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2001, and won the New Zealand Association of Scientists' Research Medal the same year. [1] In 2002 he was awarded a James Cook Research Fellowship by the Royal Society Te Apārangi. [1] In 2007 he won the Robert Arnold Wardle Award of the Canadian Society of Zoologists. [1] In 2011 he won the Hutton Medal of the Royal Society of New Zealand. [1] He was awarded the University of Otago's Distinguished Research Medal in 2013. [1]

The North African tortoise pinworm Tachygonetria poulini is named for him, [1] as is the New Zealand parasitic fluke Maritrema poulini , [4] and the parasitic cryptogonimid trematode Siphoderina poulini. [5]

Books

Authored

Edited

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parasitism</span> Relationship between species where one organism lives on or in another organism, causing it harm

Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson characterised parasites as "predators that eat prey in units of less than one". Parasites include single-celled protozoans such as the agents of malaria, sleeping sickness, and amoebic dysentery; animals such as hookworms, lice, mosquitoes, and vampire bats; fungi such as honey fungus and the agents of ringworm; and plants such as mistletoe, dodder, and the broomrapes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Host (biology)</span> Organism that harbours another organism

In biology and medicine, a host is a larger organism that harbours a smaller organism; whether a parasitic, a mutualistic, or a commensalist guest (symbiont). The guest is typically provided with nourishment and shelter. Examples include animals playing host to parasitic worms, cells harbouring pathogenic (disease-causing) viruses, or a bean plant hosting mutualistic (helpful) nitrogen-fixing bacteria. More specifically in botany, a host plant supplies food resources to micropredators, which have an evolutionarily stable relationship with their hosts similar to ectoparasitism. The host range is the collection of hosts that an organism can use as a partner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parasitoid</span> Organism that lives with its host and kills it

In evolutionary ecology, a parasitoid is an organism that lives in close association with its host at the host's expense, eventually resulting in the death of the host. Parasitoidism is one of six major evolutionary strategies within parasitism, distinguished by the fatal prognosis for the host, which makes the strategy close to predation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parasitology</span> Study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them

Parasitology is the study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them. As a biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in question but by their way of life. This means it forms a synthesis of other disciplines, and draws on techniques from fields such as cell biology, bioinformatics, biochemistry, molecular biology, immunology, genetics, evolution and ecology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brood parasitism</span> Subclass of parasitism, phenomenon that an animal relies on other inidivids to raise its young.

Brood parasitism is a subclass of parasitism and phenomenon and behavioural pattern of certain animals, brood parasites, that rely on others to raise their young. The strategy appears among birds, insects and fish. The brood parasite manipulates a host, either of the same or of another species, to raise its young as if it were its own, usually using egg mimicry, with eggs that resemble the host's.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyperparasite</span> Parasite of another parasite

A hyperparasite, also known as a metaparasite, is a parasite whose host, often an insect, is also a parasite, often specifically a parasitoid. Hyperparasites are found mainly among the wasp-waisted Apocrita within the Hymenoptera, and in two other insect orders, the Diptera and Coleoptera (beetles). Seventeen families in Hymenoptera and a few species of Diptera and Coleoptera are hyperparasitic. Hyperparasitism developed from primary parasitism, which evolved in the Jurassic period in the Hymenoptera. Hyperparasitism intrigues entomologists because of its multidisciplinary relationship to evolution, ecology, behavior, biological control, taxonomy, and mathematical models.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orobanchaceae</span> Family of flowering plants known as broomrapes

Orobanchaceae, the broomrapes, is a family of mostly parasitic plants of the order Lamiales, with about 90 genera and more than 2000 species. Many of these genera were formerly included in the family Scrophulariaceae sensu lato. With its new circumscription, Orobanchaceae forms a distinct, monophyletic family. From a phylogenetic perspective, it is defined as the largest crown clade containing Orobanche major and relatives, but neither Paulownia tomentosa nor Phryma leptostachya nor Mazus japonicus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parasite load</span> Number and virulence of the parasites that a host organism harbours

Parasite load is a measure of the number and virulence of the parasites that a host organism harbours. Quantitative parasitology deals with measures to quantify parasite loads in samples of hosts and to make statistical comparisons of parasitism across host samples.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leo Margolis</span> Canadian parasitologist

Leo Margolis, was a Canadian parasitologist. He was a pioneer in the use of parasites for identification of Pacific Ocean fish stocks. His discoveries became a crucial point in negotiations over pacific salmon fisheries, as it could now be determined where each individual fish spawned, in the rivers of Canada or the United States.

An obligate parasite or holoparasite is a parasitic organism that cannot complete its life-cycle without exploiting a suitable host. If an obligate parasite cannot obtain a host it will fail to reproduce. This is opposed to a facultative parasite, which can act as a parasite but does not rely on its host to continue its life-cycle. Obligate parasites have evolved a variety of parasitic strategies to exploit their hosts. Holoparasites and some hemiparasites are obligate.

Archiacanthocephala is a class within the phylum of Acanthocephala. They are parasitic worms that attach themselves to the intestinal wall of terrestrial vertebrates, including humans. They are characterised by the body wall and the lemnisci, which have nuclei that divide without spindle formation, or the appearance of chromosomes, or it has a few amoebae-like giant nuclei. Typically, there are eight separate cement glands in the male, which is one of the few ways to distinguish the dorsal and ventral sides of these organisms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paleoparasitology</span> Study of prehistoric parasites

Paleoparasitology is the study of parasites from the past, and their interactions with hosts and vectors; it is a subfield of paleontology, the study of living organisms from the past. Some authors define this term more narrowly, as "Paleoparasitology is the study of parasites in archaeological material." K.J. Reinhard suggests that the term "archaeoparasitology" be applied to "... all parasitological remains excavated from archaeological contexts ... derived from human activity" and that "the term 'paleoparasitology' be applied to studies of nonhuman, paleontological material." This article follows Reinhard's suggestion and discusses the protozoan and animal parasites of non-human animals and plants from the past, while those from humans and our hominid ancestors are covered in archaeoparasitology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parasitic castration</span> One strategy of parasitism

Parasitic castration is the strategy, by a parasite, of blocking reproduction by its host, completely or in part, to its own benefit. This is one of six major strategies within parasitism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Klaus Rohde</span> German biologist

Klaus Rohde is a German biologist at the University of New England (UNE), Australia, known particularly for his work on marine parasitology, evolutionary ecology/zoogeography, and phylogeny/ultrastructure of lower invertebrates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opecoelidae</span> Family of flukes

Opecoelidae is a family of trematodes. It is the largest digenean family with over 90 genera and nearly 900 species, almost solely found in marine and freshwater teleost fishes. It was considered by Bray et al. to belong in the superfamily Opecoeloidea Ozaki, 1925 or the Brachycladioidea Odhner, 1905.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Satyu Yamaguti</span>

Satyu Yamaguti was a Japanese parasitologist, entomologist, and helminthologist. He was a specialist of mosquitoes and helminths such as digeneans, monogeneans, cestodes, acanthocephalans and nematodes. He also worked on the parasitic crustaceans Copepoda and Branchiura. Satyu Yamaguti wrote more than 60 scientific papers and, more importantly, several huge monographs which are still in use by scientists all over the world and were cited over 1,000 times each.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harrison's rule</span>

Harrison's rule is an observation in evolutionary biology by Launcelot Harrison which states that in comparisons across closely related species, host and parasite body sizes tend to covary positively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parasites in fiction</span> Parasitism as a topic in fiction

Parasites appear frequently in biology-inspired fiction from ancient times onwards, with a flowering in the nineteenth century. These include intentionally disgusting alien monsters in science fiction films, often with analogues in nature. Authors and scriptwriters have, to some extent, exploited parasite biology: lifestyles including parasitoid, behaviour-altering parasite, brood parasite, parasitic castrator, and many forms of vampire are found in books and films. Some fictional parasites, like Count Dracula and Alien's Xenomorphs, have become well known in their own right.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carmen C. Velasquez</span> Filipino parasitologist (1913-1994)

Carmen Camacho Velasquez was a Filipino parasitologist. She specialized in parasites of the tropical fish of the Philippines. She is known for her work on the taxonomy of Digenea and was the first to describe the parasitic nematode Capillaria philippinensis, which causes intestinal capillariasis in humans.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Dougherty, Ian. "The accidental parasitologist". University of Otago Magazine. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  2. "Professor Robert Poulin". University of Otago. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  3. "Robert Poulin". Google Scholar. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
  4. Presswell, Bronwen; Blasco-Costa, Isabel; Kostadinova, Aneta (23 February 2014). "Two new species of Maritrema Nicoll, 1907 (Digenea: Microphallidae) from New Zealand: morphological and molecular characterisation". Parasitology Research. 113 (5): 1641–1656. doi:10.1007/s00436-014-3809-9. PMID   24562817. S2CID   253973754.
  5. Miller, Terrence; Cribb, Thomas (1 January 2008). "Eight new species of Siphoderina Manter, 1934 (Digenea, Cryptogonimidae) infecting Lutjanidae and Haemulidae (Perciformes) off Australia". Acta Parasitologica. 53 (4). doi: 10.2478/s11686-008-0053-4 . S2CID   19291276.