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Towards common ground in the biodiversity–disease debate
Open accessAbstract
The disease ecology community has struggled to come to consensus on whether biodiversity reduces or increases infectious disease risk, a question that directly affects policy decisions for biodiversity conservation and public health. Here, we summarize the primary points of contention regarding biodiversity-disease relationships and suggest that vector-borne, generalist wildlife and zoonotic pathogens are the types of parasites most likely to be affected by changes to biodiversity. One synthesis on this topic revealed a positive correlation between biodiversity and human disease burden across countries, but as biodiversity changed over time within these countries, this correlation became weaker and more variable. Another synthesis-a meta-analysis of generally smaller-scale experimental and field studies-revealed a negative correlation between biodiversity and infectious diseases (a dilution effect) in various host taxa. These results raise the question of whether biodiversity-disease relationships are more negative at smaller spatial scales. If so, biodiversity conservation at the appropriate scales might prevent wildlife and zoonotic diseases from increasing in prevalence or becoming problematic (general proactive approaches). Further, protecting natural areas from human incursion should reduce zoonotic disease spillover. By contrast, for some infectious diseases, managing particular species or habitats and targeted biomedical approaches (targeted reactive approaches) might outperform biodiversity conservation as a tool for disease control. Importantly, biodiversity conservation and management need to be considered alongside other disease management options. These suggested guiding principles should provide common ground that can enhance scientific and policy clarity for those interested in simultaneously improving wildlife and human health.
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“Despite abundant evidence for the dilution effect, the more general idea that biodiversity can reduce human disease risk has been controversial (47, 59), in large part because biodiversity was thought to be a source of new zoonotic pathogens via spillover (in the sense of Fig. 1A) (5, 8, 17, 47).”
From Impacts of biodiversity and biodiversity loss on zoonotic diseases (2021) · cites this paper as [47]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Rohr, J. R., Civitello, D. J., Halliday, F. W., Hudson, P. J., Lafferty, K. D., Wood, C. L., & Mordecai, E. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Notre Dame (US)
- Emory University (US)
- University of Zurich (CH)
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- United States Geological Survey (US)
- University of Washington (US)
- Stanford University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Rohr, Jason R.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nature Ecology & Evolution
- Published
- 2019-12-09
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 24-33
- ISSN
- 2397-334X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7224049
- OpenAlex
- W2993294584
- Cited by
- 270
- References
- 100
- Citations by year
- 2026: 18 · 2025: 46 · 2024: 36 · 2023: 37 · 2022: 49 · 2021: 50 · 2020: 33 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 5.44
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Nature Ecology & Evolution (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (R01GM109499, 1241889, 1829509, CAREER, 1518681)
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (CAREER 83518801, 83518801)
- U.S. Department of Agriculture (NRI 2006-01370, 2006-01370, R01GM109499, 2009-35102-0543, EF-1241889, NRI 2006-01370, 2009-35102-0543)
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- University of Washington
- National Institutes of Health (EF-1241889)
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01GM109499)
- Fogarty International Center (R01TW010286)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Zoonotic diseases and public health
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Parasitology › Parasite Biology and Host Interactions
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Keywords
- infectious disease risk, dilution effect, zoonoses, vector-borne diseases, wildlife pathogens, biodiversity conservation, disease management, spatial scale, disease burden
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Animals, Wild, Communicable Diseases, Humans, Risk, Zoonoses, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Ecosystem, Biodiversity
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