Lisa Belden

About

Lisa Belden is a Professor of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech, with her office located in Derring Hall. Her research focuses on community ecology in relation to disease dynamics. Current projects in her lab include examining the role of species diversity in trematode parasite dynamics within wildlife populations and investigating the role of symbiotic skin microbes in preventing amphibian infections caused by the chytrid fungus, which has led to declines in amphibian populations worldwide. Belden has been a faculty member at Virginia Tech since 2016, having previously served as an Associate Professor from 2011 to 2016 and as an Assistant Professor from 2004 to 2011. She has also held positions as a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and was a visiting scientist at Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador. Her educational background includes a Ph.D. in Zoology from Oregon State University and a B.A. in Biology from the University of Montana. Throughout her career, Belden has received numerous awards, including the VT Fralin Life Sciences Institute Innovator Award, the VT Scholar of the Week, and the Outstanding Research and Teaching Awards from the Department of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech. Her research contributions are recognized for advancing understanding in ecology, disease dynamics, and amphibian conservation.

Research topics

• Ecology
• Biology
• Evolutionary biology
• Computer Science
• Zoology
• Statistics
• Telecommunications
• Biological system
• Mathematics
• Bioinformatics

Selected publications

• Systematic review of modelling assumptions and empirical evidence: Does parasite transmission increase nonlinearly with host density?

  Methods in Ecology and Evolution · 2020 · 90 citations

  Abstract Host–parasite dynamics are impacted by the relationship between host density and parasite transmission, and thus, all epidemiological models contain a central transmission–density function. Recent theoretical work demonstrates that this central parasite transmission function might be best represented by a nonlinear continuum from one linear extreme to another: density‐dependent transmission at low host densities to density‐independent transmission at high host densities. But how often a…

  DOI

• Assessing age, breeding stage, and mating activity as drivers of variation in the reproductive microbiome of female tree swallows

  Ecology and Evolution · 2021 · 21 citations

  ). Using microsatellite-based parentage analyses, we determined the number of sires per brood (a proxy for female mating activity). We experimentally increased female sexual activity by administering exogenous 17ß-estradiol. Lastly, we used bacterial 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to characterize the cloacal microbiome. Neither the number of sires per brood nor the increased sexual activity of females significantly influenced female cloacal microbiome richness or community structure. Female age, h…

  DOI

• Seasonal changes and the unexpected impact of environmental disturbance on skin bacteria of individual amphibians in a natural habitat

  FEMS Microbiology Ecology · 2020 · 17 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Amphibians host diverse skin bacteria that have a role in pathogen defense, but these skin communities could change over time and impact this function. Here, we monitored individual Eastern red-spotted newts (Notophthalmus viridescens; N = 17) for 2 years in a field pond enclosure and assessed the effects of season and disturbance on skin bacterial community dynamics. We created disturbances by adding additional pond substrate to the enclosure at two timepoints. We planned to sample the skin bac…

  DOI

• Priority effects alter microbiome composition and increase abundance of probiotic taxa in treefrog tadpoles

  Applied and Environmental Microbiology · 2024-05-17 · 15 citations

  articleOpen access

  ABSTRACT Host-associated microbial communities, like other ecological communities, may be impacted by the colonization order of taxa through priority effects. Developing embryos and their associated microbiomes are subject to stochasticity during colonization by bacteria. For amphibian embryos, often developing externally in bacteria-rich environments, this stochasticity may be particularly impactful. For example, the amphibian microbiome can mitigate lethal outcomes from disease for their hosts…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Colonization order of bacterial isolates on treefrog embryos impacts microbiome structure in tadpoles

  Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · 2023-03-22 · 13 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Priority effects, or impacts of colonization order, may have lasting influence on ecological community composition. The embryonic microbiome is subject to stochasticity in colonization order of bacteria. Stochasticity may be especially impactful for embryos developing in bacteria-rich environments, such as the embryos of many amphibians. To determine if priority effects experienced as embryos impacted bacterial community composition in newly hatched tadpoles, we selectively inoculated the embryo…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Dimensions: Collaborative Research: Diversity and Symbiosis: Examining the Taxonomic, Genetic, and Functional Diversity of Amphibian Skin Microbiota

  NSF · $1.2M · 2011–2017

• Collaborative Research: Community composition and disease outcomes in a multihost-parasite system

  NSF · $430k · 2009–2015

• Collarborative Research: A systems approach to understanding signaling networks in host-microbiome-parasite interactions

  NSF · $750k · 2018–2023

Frequent coauthors

• Jeremy M. Wojdak

  Radford University

  79 shared

• Jennifer Mattei

  Sacred Heart University

  64 shared

• M. M. Humphries

  McGill University

  64 shared

• John P. Adelman

  64 shared

• Mark Beekey

  64 shared

• Martin Wikelski

  University of Konstanz

  64 shared

• Shelley A. Adamo

  Dalhousie University

  64 shared

• Rick A. Adams

  University of Northern Colorado

  64 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Zoology

  Oregon State University

  2001

• B.A., Biology

  University of Montana

  1995

Awards & honors

• 2015 Distinguished Alumna Award, Lincoln Southeast High Scho…
• 2014 VT Fralin Life Sciences Institute Innovator Award ($25,…
• 2013 VT Scholar of the Week (week of July 29, 2013)
• 2013 VT Dept. of Biological Sciences Outstanding Research Aw…
• 2012 VT College of Science Certificate of Teaching Excellenc…

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