Christian Selbach
Associate Professor
Virgečilgehus
Ecological Parasitology
What roles do parasites play in ecosystems? How can they influence their hosts? How will climate change affect the transmission and disease dynamics of parasites in aquatic environments? Can animals be afraid of their parasites? These are some of the questions that I address in my work as an ecological parasitologist.
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Publications outside Cristin
Articles
Mouritsen, K.N., Dalsgaard, N.P., Flensburg, S.B., Madsen, J.C. Selbach, C. (2022). Fear of parasitism affects the functional role of ecosystem engineers. OIKOS, e08965. https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.08965
Selbach, C., Marchant, L., Mouritsen, K.N. (2022). Mussel memory: can bivalves learn to fear parasites. Royal Society Open Science, 9211774211774. http://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.211774
Selbach, C., Mouritsen, K.N., Poulin, R., Sures, B., Smit, N.J. (2021). Bridging the gap: aquatic parasites in the One Health concept. Trends in Parasitology, 38, 109-111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2021.10.007
Schwelm, J.*, Selbach, C.*, Kremers, J., Sures, B. (2021). Rare inventory of trematode diversity in a protected natural reserve. Scientific Reports, 1, 22066 (2021). *shared first authors
Selbach, C., Vanhove, M.P.M., Mouritsen, K.N. (2021). The evolutionary ecology of SARS‐CoV‐2: a missing perspective in the One Health approach. Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, https://doi.org/10.1111/tbed.14160
Selbach, C., Mouritsen K.N. (2020). Mussel shutdown: does the fear of parasites regulate the functioning of filter feeders in coastal ecosystems? Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 8, 569319.
Selbach, C., Poulin, R. (2020). Some like it hotter: trematode transmission under changing temperature conditions. Oecologia, 194, 745-755.
Selbach, C., Barsøe, M., Vogensen, T.K., Samsing A.B., Mouritsen K.N. (2020). Temperature-parasite interaction: do trematode infections protect against heat stress? International Journal for Parasitology, 50, 1189-1194.
Selbach, C., Soldánová, M., Feld, C.K., Kostadinova, A., Sures, B. (2020). Hidden parasite diversity in a European freshwater system. Scientific Reports, 10, 2694.
Schwelm J., Kudlai, O., Smit, N.J., Selbach, C., Sures, B. (2020). High parasite diversity in a neglected host: larval trematodes of Bithynia tentaculata in Central Europe. Journal of Helminthology, 94, e120.
Selbach, C., Jorge, F., Dowle, E., Bennett, J., Chai, X., Doherty, J.-F., Eriksson, A., Filion, A., Hay, E., Herbison, R., Lindner, J., Park, E., Presswell, B., Ruehle, B., Sobrinho, P.M., Wainwright, E., Poulin, R. (2019). Parasitological research in the molecular age. Parasitology, 146, 1361-1370.
Selbach, C., Rosenkranz, M., Poulin, R. (2019). Cercarial behavior determines risk of predation. Journal of Parasitology. 105, 330-333.
Vielma, S., Lagrue, C. Poulin, R., Selbach, C. (2019). Non-host organisms impact transmission at two different life stages in a marine parasite. Parasitology Research, 118, 111-117.
Goellner, S., Selbach, C., Friesen, O.C. (2019). Do behavioural defence mechanisms explain different levels of trematode infections in congeneric hosts? Journal of Helminthology, 3, 379-382.
Rosenkranz, M., Poulin, R., Selbach, C. (2018). Behavioural impacts of three trematode species on the snail Potamopyrgus antipodarum: species-specific effects or generalised response? Ethology, 124, 790-795.
Rosenkranz, M., Lagrue, C., Poulin, R., Selbach, C. (2018). Small snails, high productivity? Larval output of parasites from an abundant host. Freshwater Biology, 63, 1602-1609.
Selbach, C., Poulin, R. (2018). Parasites in space and time: a novel method to assess and illustrate host-searching behaviour of trematode cercariae. Parasitology, 145, 1469-1474.
McPherson, O.G., Friesen, O.C., Selbach, C., Poulin, R. (2018). Prior infections or immune priming: what determines the risk of trematode infections in amphipod hosts? Parasitology Research, 117, 1915-1923.
Schwelm J., Soldánová, M., Vyhlídalová, T., Sures, B., Selbach, C. (2018). Small but diverse: larval trematode communities in the small freshwater planorbids Gyraulus albus and Segmentina nitida (Gastropoda: Pulmonata). Parasitology Research, 117, 241-255.
Selbach, C., Seddon, P.J., Poulin, R. (2018). Parasites lost: neglecting a crucial element in de-extinction. Trends in Parasitology, 34, 9-11.
Sures, B., Nachev, M., Keppel, M., Grabner, D., Selbach, C. (2017). Parasites as drivers of key processes in aquatic ecosystems: facts and needs. Experimental Parasitology, 180, 141-147.
Sures, B., Nachev, M., Selbach, C., Marcogliese, D.J. (2017). Parasite responses to human impact: What we know and where we go in ‘Environmental Parasitology’. Parasites & Vectors, 10, 65.
Soldánová, M.*, Selbach, C.*, Sures, B. (2016). The early worm catches the bird? Productivity and patterns of Trichobilharzia szidati cercarial emission from Lymnaea stagnalis. PLoS One 11, e0149678. *shared first authors
Selbach, C., Soldánová, M., Sures, B. (2016). Estimating the risk of swimmer’s itch in surface waters – a case study from Lake Baldeney, River Ruhr. International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 219, 693-699.
Selbach, C., Soldánová, M., Georgieva, S., Kostadinova, A., Sures, B. (2015). Integrative taxonomic approach to the cryptic diversity of Diplostomum spp. in lymnaeid snails from Europe with a focus on the ‘Diplostomum mergi’ species complex. Parasites & Vectors, 8, 300.
Selbach, C.*, Soldánová, M.*, Georgieva, S., Kostadinova, A., Kalbe, M., Sures, B. (2014). Morphological and molecular data for larval stages of four species of Petasiger Dietz, 1909 (Digenea: Echinostomatidae) with an updated key to the known cercariae from the Palaearctic. Systematic Parasitology, 89, 153-66. *shared first authors
Georgieva, S.*, Selbach, C.*, Faltýnková, A., Soldánová, M., Sures, B., Skírnisson, K., Kostadinova, A. (2013). New cryptic species of the ‘revolutum’ group of Echinostoma (Digenea: Echinostomatidae) revealed by molecular and morphological data. Parasites & Vectors, 6, 64. *shared first authors
Soldánová, M., Selbach, C., Kalbe, M., Kostadinova, A., Sures, B. (2013). Swimmer’s itch: etiology, impact, and risk factors in Europe. Trends in Parasitology, 29, 65-74.
Soldánová, M.*, Selbach, C.*, Sures, B., Kostadinova, A., Perez-Del-Olmo, A. (2010). Larval trematode communities in Radix auricularia and Lymnaea stagnalis in a reservoir system of the Ruhr River. Parasites & Vectors, 3, 56. *shared first authors
Book Contributions
Selbach, C., Sures, B. (2016). Swimmer’s itch. In: Encyclopedia of Parasitology, Mehlhorn, H. (ed.), Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2587-2593.
Dutkanberoštumit
My work focuses on trematodes that parasitize a wide range of vertebrate and invertebrate hosts. I study the role of these ecologically important parasites in marine and freshwater habitats to better understand their contribution to the systems’ biodiversity, energetics and food webs, their impact on host behaviour, and their relevance as human and wildlife pathogens in changing environments.
Undervisning
BIO-1008 Evolution
BIO-3505 Ecological Interactions
BIO-3519 Parasitology & Epidemiology
Member of research group
CV
Professional Experience
- Since 8/2022 Associate Professor in Ecological Parasitology at UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
- 12/2021 – 7/2022 Research fellow at the Centre for Water and Environmental Research, University of Duisburg Essen, Germany.
- 6/2021– 11/2021 Postdoctoral researcher at Aarhus University, Denmark.
- 6/2019 – 5/2021 Marie-Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at Aarhus University, Denmark. Project: Parasitism and climate change: A tipping point for blue mussel populations? Funded by the European Commission
- 4/2019 – 5/2019 Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Return Fellowship. Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
- 2/2017 – 2/2019 Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. Project: Hazardous host-finding: Comparative study of transmission abilities and predator evasion in parasites. Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
- 3/2016 – 1/2017 Postdoctoral researcher at the North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa. Project: Implications of invasive species for host-parasite dynamics in floodplain systems. Funded by a North-West University postdoctoral fellowship.
Education
- 2/2011 – 12/2015 PhD dissertation at the University of Duisburg – Essen, Aquatic Ecology. Title: Biology and ecology of trematodes parasitizing aquatic snails in the Ruhr reservoir system in Germany
- 2010 – 2015 Annual research visits to the Institute of Parasitology in České Budějovice, Czech Republic for training in molecular and morphological taxonomic approaches to identify problematic parasite taxa
- 11/2010 Staatsexamen (State Examination) English & Biology for a teaching degree at the University of Duisburg – Essen.
- 2008 – 2009 Individual Paper Credit (MSc) at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand (Applied Linguistic & Biology).
- 4/2005 – 11/2010 Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen (English & Biology for a teaching degree).