Alexander Strauss


Assistant Professor
Graduate Program Faculty

Professional Website

Education

PhD, Indiana University, 2016
AB, Washington University in St. Louis, 2011

Areas of Expertise
  • Disease ecology
  • Community ecology
Honors, Awards, and Achievements

2019, JBS Haldane Early Career Award (British Ecological Society)
2017, Thomas M. Frost Award (ESA Aquatic Section)
2015, Outstanding Paper Award (ESA Disease Ecology Section)

Affiliations

River Basin Center

Center for the Ecology of Infectious Diseases

Courses Taught

Population and Community Ecology (ECOL 4000/6000)

Freshwater Ecosystems (ECOL 4310/6310)

Selected Publications

Paseka, R, White, L, van de Waal, D, Strauss, AT, González, A, Everett, R, Peace, A, Seabloom, EW, Frenken, T, and ET Borer. Disease-mediated ecosystem services: Pathogens, plants, and people. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. In press.

Strauss, AT, Hite, JL, Civitello, DJ, Shocket, MS, Cáceres, CE, and SR Hall. 2019. Genotypic variation in parasite avoidance behavior and other mechanistic, non-nonlinear components of transmission. Proc. R. Soc. B 286 (1915): 20192164.

Strauss, AT, Shoemaker LG, Seabloom EW, and ET Borer. 2019. Cross-scale dynamics in community and disease ecology: Relative timescales shape the community ecology of pathogens. Ecology 100 (11): e02836.

Shoemaker, LG, Hayhurst, E, Weiss-Lehman, CP, Strauss, AT, Porath-Krause, A, Borer, ET, Seabloom, EW, and AK Shaw. 2019. Pathogens manipulate the preference of vectors, slowing disease spread in a multi-host system. Ecology Letters 22 (7): 1115-1125.

Shocket, MS, Vergara, D, Sickbert, A, Walsman, J, Strauss, AT, Hite, JL, Duffy, MA, Cáceres, CE, and SR Hall. 2018 Parasite rearing and infection temperatures jointly influence disease transmission and shape seasonality of epidemics. Ecology 99 (9): 1975-1987.

Strauss, AT, Bowling, AM, Duffy, MA, Cáceres, CE, and SR Hall. 2018. Linking host traits, interactions with competitors, and disease: Mechanistic foundations for disease dilution. Functional Ecology 32 (5): 1271-1279.

Shocket, MS, Strauss, AT, Hite, JL, Šljivar, M, Civitello, DJ, Duffy, MA, Cáceres, CE, and SR Hall. 2018. Temperature drives epidemics in a zooplankton-fungus disease system: A trait driven approach points to transmission via host foraging. The American Naturalist 191 (4): 435-451.

Strauss, AT, Hite, JL, Shocket, MS, Cáceres, CE, Duffy, MA, and SR Hall. 2017. Rapid evolution rescues hosts from competition and disease and – despite a dilution effect – increases the density of infected hosts. 2017. Proc. R. Soc. B. 284.

Hite, JL, Penczykowski, RM, Shocket, MS, Griebel, K, Strauss, AT, Duffy, MA, Cáceres, CE, and SR Hall. 2017. Allocation, not male resistance, increases male frequency during epidemics: A case study in facultatively sexual hosts. Ecology 98: 2773-2783.

Strauss, AT, Shocket, MS, Civitello, DJ, Hite, JL, Penczykowski, RM, Duffy, MA, Cáceres, CE, and SR Hall. 2016. Habitat, predators, and hosts regulate disease in Daphnia through direct and indirect pathways. Ecological Monographs 86: 393-411.

Hite, JL, Penczykowski, RM, Shocket, MS, Strauss AT, Orlando PA, Duffy, MA, Cáceres, CE, and SR Hall. 2016. Parasites destabilize host populations by shifting stage-structured interactions. Ecology 97: 439-449.

Strauss, A, Civitello, DJ, Cáceres, CE, and SR Hall. 2015. Success, failure, and ambiguity of the dilution effect among competitors. Ecology Letters 18: 916-926.

Strauss, A and KG Smith. 2013. Why does amphibian chytrid (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) not occur everywhere? An exploratory study in Missouri ponds. PLOS ONE.

Strauss, A, White, A, and M Boots. 2012. Invading with biological weapons: The importance of disease-mediated invasions. Functional Ecology 26: 1249-1261.