Michael Ohmer
Michel is an ecophysiologist and disease ecologist who studies the impact of global change on host-pathogen interactions. She seeks to understand why some species and individuals are at a greater risk of disease than others and use this information to predict population-level impacts. Michel’s research explores these questions using amphibians and a widespread fungal pathogen, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), to better understand how the host-pathogen relationship is shaped by host physiology, and how environmental change can alter this relationship. As a LEC fellow, Michel will work to future-proof reintroduction and translocation planning for amphibian populations in the face of disease and changing global conditions. In collaboration with Lauren Augustine (St. Louis Zoo), Kim Medley (Washington University), and Kasey Fowler-Finn (St. Louis University), Michel will measure local adaptation in thermal physiology across amphibian populations and use mechanistic modeling to predict refuges from disease in a changing climate.