Charlotte Narr

Research Interests:

My research examines the causes and consequences of patterns in freshwater nutrient availability.

Drawing from the fields of ecological stoichiometry, biogeochemistry, and disease ecology, I examine how traits of organisms respond to and shape the nutrient dynamics around them. Parasites are fascinating study subjects for this because their life history traits are relatively flexible, and they can exert strong effects on the life history traits of their hosts. My research detangles the complex interplay between parasites, their hosts, and nutrients using a combination of experiments and field studies.

Predicting the effects of nutrient inputs from humans on this interplay is a pressing issue. I work to mitigate negative anthropogenic effects on freshwater nutrient availability by studying the effects of infrastructure and land use on freshwater ecosystems across multiple spatial scales.

Selected Recent Publications

Sedlacek, E., S. Binger, C.F. Narr. 2025. Journal of Parasitology. Diet quality alters priority effects of coinfecting parasites of Daphnia magna. Journal of Parasitology. Nov 20;111(6):709-716. 10.1645/24-144

Narr, C.F., S. Binger, E. Sedlacek, B. Anderson, G. Shoemaker, A. Stanley, M. Stokoski, E. Hall. 2025. Stoichiometric acclimation of a bacterial infrapopulation to shifts in the diet quality of a single host. Ecology. 106(8):e70176. doi: 10.1002/ecy.70176

Binger, S., M. Stokoski, C.F. Narr. 2025. Phosphorus enrichment increases the prevalence of a microsporidian parasite in experimental Daphnia populations. Limnology and Oceanography. doi.org/10.1002/lno.70108

Narr, C.F., S. Binger, E. Hall. 2025. Infection route alters the effect of host diet quality on host-parasite interactions. Oikos. 7 e10960. doi.org/10.1111/oik.10960

Narr, C.F., S. Binger, E. Sedlacek, B. Anderson, G. Shoemaker, A. Stanley, M. Stokoski, E. Hall. 2024. Evaluating host diet effects on microparasites by measuring the stoichiometry of infrapopulations one cell at a time. Ecology and Evolution. 14(7): e11645

Stanley, A., S. Valentine, and C.F. Narr. 2024. Divvying up the Pie: Tissue nutrient content is related to its parasite load. Ecology and Evolution. 14(5): e11122

Narr C.F., P. Chernyavsky, S. Collins. 2022. Partitioning macro- and micro-scale ecological processes using covariate-driven non-stationary spatial models. Ecological Applications. 32(1): e02485

Narr C.F., A.C. Krist. 2020. Improving estimates of richness, habitat associations, and assemblage characteristics of freshwater gastropods. Aquatic Conservation Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. 30(1):131-143

Narr C.F., A. Keeley, B. Faulkner, H. Singh, D. Beak, P. Mayer, K. Forshay. 2019. Quantifying the effects of surface conveyance of treated wastewater effluent on groundwater, surface water, and nutrient dynamics in a large river floodplain. Ecological Engineering. 129:123-133

Narr, C.F., D. Ebert, G. Bastille-Rousseau, P.C. Frost. 2019. Prevalence and load of a microsporidian parasite is correlated with rock pool nutrient concentrations. Journal of Animal Ecology. 88(4):570-590

Narr, C.F. and P.C. Frost. 2016. Exploited and excreting: Parasite type affects host nutrient recycling. Ecology. 97(8):2012-2020

Narr, C.F. and P.C. Frost. 2015. Does infection tilt the scales? Disease effects on the mass-balance of an invertebrate nutrient recycler. Oecologia. 179(4):969-979

Narr, C. F. and A.C. Krist. 2015. Host diet alters trematode replication and elemental composition. Freshwater Science. 34(1):81-89