Parasite Biodiversity and Wildlife Genomics Lab

Integrating field studies, laboratory experiments, and population genomics to conserve wildlife and uncover complex ecological patterns of parasite transmission. 

Welcome to the Gustafson Lab at Arkansas State University. We study the environmental and ecological factors that shape the distributions, genetics, and genomics of host and parasite populations. Our research asks how historical processes produced the populations and communities we see today, and how contemporary pressures are changing them.

Field work is central to what we do, but many population-level processes cannot be observed in the field alone. We pair field surveys with genetic and genomic laboratory techniques to disentangle population structure, gene flow, and parasite transmission. We work most often with nematodes, trematodes, snails, amphibians, and mammals, though our approaches extend readily to other organisms.

Conservation runs through all of it. Our results go to the agencies that manage these species, and the specimens behind them are archived at the Arkansas Center for Biodiversity Collections.