I'm in discussion group about the book "Evolving Human Nutrition". I'm a microbiologist and I need to do a link between microorganisms, environment and dry regions, such as deserts. I was thinking about in this relationship: What kind of microorganisms (parasites or not) is often found in high temperatures in the desert and what microorganisms is often found in low temperatures in the desert? Any paper suggestion would be great.
Any time that you have mammals in a region you will have some parasites like tapeworm, etc. As long as the mammals can maintain their normal body temperature, they will still have a parasite load.
If you are investigating human nutrition, human agency is quite central in any considerations on parasite species, distribution and spread. Humans harbor their own impressive load as definitive hosts, but can become incidental hosts to an even wider variety of parasites. Given the durability for instance of parasite eggs, alien species might be present in any environment as they may be imported with foreign or exotic foodstuffs and that's where human agency becomes prominent. So consideration of the given desert environment as such should be augmented by data on the foodstuffs consumed by humans and their stocks at a given site. Also, plant parasites may become quite detrimental if consumed accidentally - think ergot, for instance. This can again be due to imported food items. As a consequence, any research should certainly be interdisciplinary
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