Forest species diversity reduces disease risk in a generalist plant pathogen invasion

Haas, Stephanie C.; Hooten, Mevin B.; Rizzo, David M.; Meentemeyer, Ross K.

doi:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2011.01679.x

Cited by 157 publications

(155 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Loss of biodiversity might have extensive, positive or negative, impacts on disease transmission in natural ecosystems (Borer et al 2009, Haas et al 2011. Our study showed that tree diversity plays a role in biotrophic fungal pathogen infections of common European forestry species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Species richness and species identity effects on occurrence of foliar fungal pathogens in a tree diversity experiment

et al. 2013

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Citation: Hantsch, L., U. Braun, M. Scherer-Lorenzen, and H. Bruelheide. 2013. Species richness and species identity effects on occurrence of foliar fungal pathogens in a tree diversity experiment. Ecosphere 4(7):81. http://dx.doi.org/10. 1890/ES13-00103.1Abstract. Current theory on transmission rates of plant pathogens predicts a strong influence of host richness on the degree of infection. In addition, identity effects, caused by the presence of particular species in a community, may also drive biodiversity and ecosystem functioning relationships, with ''selection'' or ''sampling effects'' being particularly important. We tested the effect of tree species richness and tree species identity effects on foliar fungal pathogens on four forest tree species of the temperate zone making use of the BIOTREE tree diversity experiment in Germany. We hypothesized that fungal species richness is positively and fungal pathogen load negatively related to tree species richness. In addition, we tested whether species number of foliar biotrophic fungi and pathogen load depend on tree community composition and on the presence or absence of particular disease-prone tree species. All foliar fungi were identified macro-and microscopically and subjected to statistical analyses at three hierarchical levels, at the plot level, the level of single tree species and the level of individual fungus species. There was a negative effect of tree richness on the pathogen load of common powdery mildew species. Moreover, we found strong tree species identity effects at the plot level as the presence of Quercus resulted in a high pathogen load. Thus, for the first time we experimentally showed that disease risk and pathogen transmission of foliar fungal pathogens in temperate forest tree ecosystems may depend on tree richness and on the presence of particular disease-prone species.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Species richness and species identity effects on occurrence of foliar fungal pathogens in a tree diversity experiment

et al. 2013

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“…Although an increasing number of studies have reported negative correlations between host diversity and disease risk (29,38,39), the hidden effects of concurrent changes in parasite communities have rarely been explored (19,31,40). Future studies examining the biodiversity-disease relationship should focus more heavily on the relative importance of multiple components of biodiversity (and how they covary) in driving observed patterns in disease risk (41)(42)(43), including the direct and indirect effects of hosts, nonhosts (e.g., predators and competitors), parasites, as well as other microorganisms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, because we expected host diversity, parasite diversity, and parasite load to correlate in the field owing to links between colonization and diversity, we used an experimental approach first in the laboratory and then in seminatural outdoor mesocosms to decouple the unique effects of each form of diversity on infection by Ribeiroia and the total parasite community. While building upon previous efforts examining the individual effects of host and parasite richness in isolation (15,19,(27)(28)(29)(30), this study combines cross-sectional coinfection data, field-based measurements of transmission, and new experiments to explicitly examine the effects of host species richness on infection by an entire parasite assemblage, thereby mechanistically evaluating the joint effects of host and parasite diversity on disease risk.…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

Host and parasite diversity jointly control disease risk in complex communities

Johnson

Preston

Hoverman

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

132

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Host-parasite interactions are embedded within complex communities composed of multiple host species and a cryptic assemblage of other parasites. To date, however, surprisingly few studies have explored the joint effects of host and parasite richness on disease risk, despite growing interest in the diversity-disease relationship. Here, we combined field surveys and mechanistic experiments to test how transmission of the virulent trematode Ribeiroia ondatrae was affected by the diversity of both amphibian hosts and coinfecting parasites. Within natural wetlands, host and parasite species richness correlated positively, consistent with theoretical predictions. Among sites that supported Ribeiroia, however, host and parasite richness interacted to negatively affect Ribeiroia transmission between its snail and amphibian hosts, particularly in species-poor assemblages. In laboratory and outdoor experiments designed to decouple the relative contributions of host and parasite diversity, increases in host richness decreased Ribeiroia infection by 11-65%. Host richness also tended to decrease total infections by other parasite species (four of six instances), such that more diverse host assemblages exhibited ∼40% fewer infections overall. Importantly, parasite richness further reduced both per capita and total Ribeiroia infection by 15-20%, possibly owing to intrahost competition among coinfecting species. These findings provide evidence that parasitic and free-living diversity jointly regulate disease risk, help to resolve apparent contradictions in the diversity-disease relationship, and emphasize the challenges of integrating research on coinfection and host heterogeneity to develop a community ecology-based approach to infectious diseases. biodiversity | dilution effect | community assembly | amphibian decline | disease ecology

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“…Disease dilution, an important ecosystem service, has been reported for a variety of systems from vectorborne zoonoses (i.e. diseases transmitted from animals to humans) to directly transmitted plant pathogens [16,[18][19][20][21][22]. However, a variety of mechanisms might underlie this common pattern, and the effects of biodiversity on disease prevalence are still in debate [23][24][25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-random biodiversity loss underlies predictable increases in viral disease prevalence

Lacroix

Jolles

Seabloom

et al. 2014

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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Disease dilution (reduced disease prevalence with increasing biodiversity) has been described for many different pathogens. Although the mechanisms causing this phenomenon remain unclear, the disassembly of communities to predictable subsets of species, which can be caused by changing climate, land use or invasive species, underlies one important hypothesis. In this case, infection prevalence could reflect the competence of the remaining hosts. To test this hypothesis, we measured local host species abundance and prevalence of four generalist aphid-vectored pathogens (barley and cereal yellow dwarf viruses) in a ubiquitous annual grass host at 10 sites spanning 2000 km along the North American West Coast. In laboratory and field trials, we measured viral infection as well as aphid fecundity and feeding preference on several host species. Virus prevalence increased as local host richness declined. Community disassembly was non-random: ubiquitous hosts dominating species-poor assemblages were among the most competent for vector production and virus transmission. This suggests that non-random biodiversity loss led to increased virus prevalence. Because diversity loss is occurring globally in response to anthropogenic changes, such work can inform medical, agricultural and veterinary disease research by providing insights into the dynamics of pathogens nested within a complex web of environmental forces.

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Forest species diversity reduces disease risk in a generalist plant pathogen invasion

Cited by 157 publications

References 49 publications

Species richness and species identity effects on occurrence of foliar fungal pathogens in a tree diversity experiment

Species richness and species identity effects on occurrence of foliar fungal pathogens in a tree diversity experiment

Host and parasite diversity jointly control disease risk in complex communities

Non-random biodiversity loss underlies predictable increases in viral disease prevalence

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