Jessica Hua

Jessica Hua is a professor in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at University of Wisconsin–Madison, WI. She is a herpetologist and oversees her own lab, The Hua Lab, where they focus on ecological interactions, evolutionary processes and ecological-evolutionary feedbacks. Hua's background has led to her appreciation of education with coming from a refugee family who "epitomizes the concept of the American Dream". Her research aims to help others gain opportunities while also establishing a lab that is inclusive and diverse.

Education Hua received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Biology and Kinesiology from Southwestern University, TX, in 2008 where she had gone to the university for basketball and picked biology for her major with the intention of going to medical school. This experience led Hua to become a Herpetologists' League member. The research was focused on a fungal pathogen that afflicted amphibians, called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, and how amphibian species varied in their sensitivity to this pathogen. There was also constitutive tolerance (tolerance that is always expressed despite environmental conditions) seen for frog populations near agriculture but was not seen in populations that were away from agriculture, leading Hua to note that genetic assimilation, a process cause by phenotypic plasticity, may be influencing evolutionary responses with unique environments. These classes aim to educate students on the principles of ecology, how to apply ecology, the significance and diversity of wetlands, as well as how humans impact ecology Hua focuses her lab's research on understanding the impact of chemicals on aquatic systems through ecological and evolutionary mechanisms while working with a variety of organisms from amphibians to insects to isopods.

Ecotoxicology Researches human interaction in ecology to understand how human-related activities, such as pollution, has impacted aquatic ecosystems at all levels of the ecosystem. Questions being explored involve species interactions, responses to pollutants and how human activities impact ecological interactions. Model systems of wood frogs are used to study this topic since wood frogs have a high degree of variance with their pollutant tolerance. The questions asked here consist of how evolving pollutant tolerance can be associated with ecological costs or how plasticity to pollutants influence species relationships and interactions in the environment. Hua had stated that "We're hoping to change perceptions and decouple the idea of 'these are humans — and this is wildlife.' Instead, we want people to realize that everything is connected". She views that communicating research effectively to the broader population is vital to making a difference in the world. One art show Hua had measured how effective this outreach was in the community by doing pre and post surveys which lead to there being a 20% increase in understanding the importance of wetlands. The project is titled "Evolutionary Disease Ecology - Can Evolutionary Responses to Environmental Change Modify the Biodiversity-Disease Relationship?" and will receive funding from March 2022 through February 2027. This award will allow Hua to dive further in her research to understand if variances in tolerance to pesticides affect biodiversity and its relationship with disease susceptibility since increased biodiversity is usually seen to have decreased susceptibility to diseases, however this concept is not fully understood.

Honors and awards

Select publications Searle, C.L., Gervasi, S.S., Hua, J., Hammond, J.I., Relyea, R.A., Olson, D.H. and Blaustein, A.R. (2011), Differential Host Susceptibility to Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, an Emerging Amphibian Pathogen. Conservation Biology, 25: 965-974. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2011.01708.x Hua, J., Morehouse, N.I. and Relyea, R. (2013), Pesticide tolerance in amphibians: induced tolerance in susceptible populations, constitutive tolerance in tolerant populations. Evol Appl, 6: 1028-1040. https://doi.org/10.1111/eva.12083 Gervasi, S.S., Urbina, J., Hua, J., Chestnut, T., Relyea, R., and Blaustein, A.R. (2013), Experimental Evidence for American Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) Susceptibility to Chytrid Fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis). EcoHealth, 10:166–171. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-013-0832-8 Hua, J. and Relyea, R. (2014), Chemical cocktails in aquatic systems: Pesticide effects on the response and recovery of >20 animal taxa. Environmental Pollution, 189: 18-26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2014.02.007 Miles, J.C., Hua J., Sepulveda, M.S., Krupke, C.H. and Hoverman, J.T. (2018), Correction: Effects of clothianidin on aquatic communities: Evaluating the impacts of lethal and sublethal exposure to neonicotinoids. PLOS ONE 13(3): e0194634. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0194634 Shidemantle, G., Buss, N. and Hua, J. (2022), Are glucocorticoids good indicators of disturbance across populations that exhibit cryptic variation in contaminant tolerance?. Animal Conservation, 25: 273-284. https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12737