In the Belden Lab at Virginia Tech we primarily study community ecology, with a focus on understanding how complex communities influence disease dynamics in natural systems. Most of our work has focused on addressing these questions in the symbiotic microbial communities that reside on amphibian skin and in communities of freshwater trematode parasites. However, our work on symbiotic microbes has expanded in recent years to include some new and exciting systems, including song birds, honey bees and wheat.
