Rodent-borne microparasitic infectious diseases (e.g. LCMv), including those transmitted by the rodents’ ectoparasites (e.g. TBE), are of increasing concern for public health. Rodents themselves are also a threat to food security because they damage agricultural crops and food stores. Effective control of these emerging and re-emerging diseases (and the rodent hosts themselves) requires a full understanding of the parasite-host dynamic. This dynamic is likely to be altered where hosts are coinfected with prevalent endemic macroparasite species (e.g. helminths), which change host demography and may interact directly with microparasites via the host’s immune system. Using empirical data from a typical European temperate forest in the Autonomous Province of Trent (PAT), Northern Italy, this project will: i) first assesses which macro- and microparasites interactions exist among the common parasite community in this region (using advanced statistical methods), ii) develop a mathematical modelling framework to assess the long term dynamics of the rodent and parasite community and to simulate the outcome of a range of different parasite and host control strategies and iii) use this model to develop a co-ordinated ‘OneHealth’ plan for both rodent and parasite control in PAT .

Sound plays a critical role in many species behaviour and their intra and inter specific interactions, thus disruption of animal soundscapes due to anthropogenic noise has led to significant negative impacts on wildlife populations. Although, in terrestrial environments, anthropogenic noise is recognized as a major pollutant, regulations are targeted towards human wellbeing and often not relevant to wild populations. Hence, it is critical to better understand how noise influences and disrupts wildlife ecological niches. This project will take an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the ecoacoustic dimension of human and terrestrial wildlife interactions, focussing on mammals (currently underrepresented in the bioacoustic literature). Specifically, the project will evaluate how anthropogenic noise perturbates wildlife species ecological niches in Alpine ecosystems and what are the mechanism and the consequences of such perturbation on animal behaviour and performance. I will use a large array (>200) of acoustic recorders to measure sound levels variation across anthropic gradients and identify sources of anthropogenic noise (including outdoor sports). First, acoustic data will be integrated with a similar array of camera traps to investigate how noise levels affect the spatio-temporal occurrence of wildlife. Second, I will use biologging data and hormonal stress levels from faecal samples to assess the behavioural and physiological consequences of anthropogenic noise exposure. Finally, I will use a controlled experiment to disentangle the role of auditory and visual cues, and their interaction, in the elicitation of animal behavioural responses to anthropogenic disturbance. I will complement my expertis in bioacoustics with training in camera trapping, biologging and modelling. The knowledge generated in this action will inform and support the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems (UN SDG 15, HE Cluster6 and NextGenerationEU).

The East Asian mosquitoes species Aedes albopictus and Ae. koreicus are invading several European countries, posing an increasing threat to human and animal public health. The life cycle of mosquitoes is strongly driven by temperature, making feasible the implementation of mathematical models predicting their distribution, population dynamics, and arbovirus transmission risk to support mosquito and Mosquito-Borne Viral Diseases management and control actions. However, the model's forecast reliability and biological realism are limited by the quantity and quality of the life-history traits observations used to inform the population dynamic model. This information is collected throughout laboratory experiments trying to assess the influence of temperature on different life-history traits (e.g., temperature-dependent adult mortality rate). Nevertheless, the results have been so far highly variable, due to i) different experimental settings and ii) multiple geographic origin of the biological specimens. IFTAMED aims to review the current knowledge on the influence of temperature on the life-history traits of Ae. albopictus and Ae. koreicus, two invasive Aedes species of medical interest with established populations in North-East Italy, and implement it by designing targeted laboratory experiments under fluctuating temperature regimes, a laboratory setting that more accurately reflect variable environmental conditions in the field but not frequently applied in mosquito thermal biology experiments. The information collected from the review and the laboratory experiments will be disseminated in open-access databases and used to inform a population-dynamic mechanistic model, whose spatial and temporal forecasts will be integrated into an online early-warning system displaying information of practical interest (e.g, the estimated abundance of each life stage) for proactive mosquito control and management actions.

The first aim of the project is to prove a general mechanism for plant protection from abiotic stresses (such as temperature and ozone stress) exerted by volatile isoprenoids (VIPs). Recent studies advanced the hypothesis that VIPs may function as effective antioxidants in plants by directly reacting with reactive oxygen species (ROS) that accumulate upon abiotic stress, producing oxidized VIPs. However, this mechanism is yet to be confirmed. During the outgoing phase (Harvard University, Cambridge MA, USA) the objective described above will be addressed via a comprehensive experimental approach that will be carried out on the model plant Arabidopsis (wild-type and isoprene-emitting transgenic Arabidopsis), on a plant species (Quercus rubra) that emits very large quantities of VIPs and on grapevine, a crop of outmost importance in the European economy. During the return phase (FEM, Trento, Italy) the multidisciplinary expertise gained in the outgoing period will be fully employed to study the grapevine germplasm owned by the return institution and new grapevine varieties selected or genetically modified for the emission of specific VIPs, which have recently been developed by a partner research group, in collaboration with the applicant. The final objectives of the project are 1) to prove that VIPs act as effective antioxidant on grapevine leading to an improved ozone stress resistance and 2) to integrate screening for VIP emission in the host institution grapevine breeding program in order to improve stress resistance of new grapevine varieties.