Nathalie Zeballos

Master’s student in Ecology and Evolution

In am particularly interested in the evolutionary ecology of host-parasite systems. My master project focus on dispersal evolution in spatially structured host-parasite populations. The theoretical part of my project (with Emanuel Fronhofer) explores the eco-evolutionary consequences of life-history trade-offs in spatially structured host-parasite systems on dispersal evolution and on demographic dynamics, under various ecological scenarios. The experimental part with Oliver Kaltz investigates natural variation and covariation (trade-offs) for host dispersal, growth rate and parasite resistance in a microbial model system, the ciliateParamecium caudatumand its bacterial parasiteHolospora undulata.