What happens to snails and their parasites after the summer?
This August, the field team set up a mesocosm experiment investigating the impact of drought on snail and trematode egg survival over winter. As a part of this project, the team collected 150 gallons of pond mud and 1200 snails from sites across the San Francisco Bay Area. This experiment will run through the fall and into winter, and will provide insight into how trematode infections persist in ponds year after year.