Towards common ground in the biodiversity–disease debate

Rohr, Jason R.; Civitello, David J.; Halliday, Fletcher W.; Hudson, Peter J.; Lafferty, Kevin D.; Wood, Chelsea L.; Mordecai, Erin A.

doi:10.1038/s41559-019-1060-6

Cited by 202 publications

(246 citation statements)

References 98 publications

(258 reference statements)

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“…Furthermore, accounting for 274 biodiversity loss explained some inconsistencies among prior data syntheses. Together, these 275 results provide important context for understanding the role that native biodiversity plays in 276 protecting human wellbeing and ecosystem health, suggesting that preventing biodiversity 277 loss can proactively reduce infectious disease risk (Rohr et al 2020). 278…”

Section: Does Biodiversity Loss Underlie the Dilution Effect Of Biodimentioning

confidence: 97%

“…2015;Halliday & Rohr 2019). Yet, despite more than three decades of empirical research, 38 meta-analyses, reviews, and syntheses, there remains polarizing debate regarding the 39 generality of this effect (Halsey 2019;Rohr et al 2020). Several recent studies provide a 40 promising framework for resolving this debate, suggesting that changes in the structure of 41 host communities, rather than biodiversity per se, can explain when a dilution effect should 42 be observed (Johnson et al 2013(Johnson et al , 2019Joseph et al 2013;Mihaljevic et al 2014;Strauss et 43 al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…341gradients with changes in species pools, weakening dilution effects(Wood & Lafferty 2013; portion of the biodiversity gradient than smaller-scale studies, and their biodiversity-disease relationships favor dilution over the majority of the gradient (i.e., they are right-skewed; 347Halliday & Rohr 2019;Rohr et al 2020). These results highlight the need for studies that 348 measure biodiversity gradients across spatial scales to better disentangle conditions under 349 which spatial scale and latitude moderate the dilution effect.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Biodiversity loss underlies the dilution effect of biodiversity

Halliday

Rohr

Laine

2020

Preprint

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The dilution effect predicts increasing biodiversity to reduce the risk of infection, but the generality of this effect remains unresolved. Because biodiversity loss generates predictable changes in host community competence, we hypothesized that biodiversity loss might drive the dilution effect. We tested this hypothesis by reanalyzing four previously published meta-analyses that came to contradictory conclusions regarding generality of the dilution effect. In the context of biodiversity loss, our analyses revealed a unifying pattern: dilution effects were inconsistently observed for natural biodiversity gradients, but were commonly observed for biodiversity gradients generated by disturbances causing losses of native biodiversity. Incorporating biodiversity loss into tests of generality of the dilution effect further indicated that scale-dependency may strengthen the dilution effect only when biodiversity gradients are driven by biodiversity loss. Together, these results help to resolve one of the most contentious issues in disease ecology: the generality of the dilution effect.

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Section: Does Biodiversity Loss Underlie the Dilution Effect Of Biodimentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Biodiversity loss underlies the dilution effect of biodiversity

Halliday

Rohr

Laine

2020

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“…This type of biodiversity loss should be mitigated and prevented to retain ecosystem health in Borneo. Some evidence suggests that biodiversity loss could augment the burden of zoonotic diseases, at least at the local level (Rohr et al, 2020). Thus, assessing the levels of biodiversity loss that generate the minimum disease transmission risk (i.e., biodiversity-disease relationship) could help to prevent disease transmission within areas of human-wildlife interface.…”

Section: Abstract: Anthropocene Biodiversity Flooding Impacts Indmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perspective: Climate Change and the Relocation of Indonesia’s Capital to Borneo

Vuurst

Escobar

2020

Front. Earth Sci.

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Indonesia has recently announced the relocation of the country's capital from the island of Java to the island of Borneo. Java's limited sustainability is evident from extreme deforestation, biodiversity loss, intense road traffic, and high pollution. Jakarta, Indonesia's current capital on Java, is both one of the most densely populated cities in the world, and one of the most threatened by climate change. Negative impacts upon Jakarta due to climate change could affect its economy, human health, and biodiversity. These negative factors could be transferred from Jakarta to Borneo, at least partially, during the early stages of moving the capital. Borneo currently houses one of the largest remaining forested areas in Southeast Asia and is considered to be a biodiversity hotspot. However, despite its biological importance, ∼30% of Borneo has been deforested in the last 50 years. Borneo also has high rates of biological endemism, but some of its emblematic endemic species are critically endangered. We argue that Indonesia's announcement to re-locate the capital is one of the first examples of systematic, mass migration expected to occur linked to the climate change crisis. Unless a multidisciplinary and sustainable transition is implemented, the establishment of a new capital in Borneo could be a major biodiversity catastrophe. Research is urgently needed in Borneo to determine the status quo of its ecosystems for a largescale, before-after assessment of the human-footprint to better understand processes in the Anthropocene.

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“…Whether increased host biodiversity leads to greater or less disease has been contested in the literature (Lafferty and Wood, 2013; Ostfeld and Keesing, 2013; Wood and Lafferty, 2013), leading to calls for new theory explaining how particular mechanisms influence amplification and dilution (Buhnerkempe et al, 2015; Halsey, 2019; Rohr et al, 2019). We developed a framework that unifies environmental transmission and direct transmission models and shows environmental transmission lies intermediate between density-dependent and frequency-dependent direct transmission (Figure 1A).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The context dependent effects of host competence, competition, and the pathogen transmission mode on disease prevalence

Cortez

Duffy

2020

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Biodiversity in communities is changing globally, including the gain and 1 loss of host species in host-pathogen communities. The dilution effect argues for a mecha-2 nistic link between increased host diversity and decreased disease in a focal host. However, 3 we currently have a limited understanding of how the pathogen transmission mechanism 4 and between-host interactions influence whether increased host diversity leads to increased 5 (amplification) or decreased (dilution) infection prevalence. We use a two-host-one-pathogen 6 model to unify theory for pathogens with environmental transmission and density-dependent 7 and frequency-dependent direct transmission. We then identify general rules governing how 8 the pathogen transmission mechanism and characteristics of the introduced host (disease 9 competence and competitive ability) influence whether the introduction of a second host 10 species increases or decreases disease prevalence in a focal host. We discuss how our results 11 yield insight into how specific biological mechanisms shape host biodiversity-disease patterns. 13Biodiversity in communities is changing across the globe, with species introductions in some 14 and extirpation in others. Altered biodiversity can influence patterns of infectious diseases 15 because most pathogens can infect multiple host species and most communities are made 16 up of multiple host species (Cleaveland et al., 2001; Pedersen et al., 2005; Rigaud et al., 17 2010). These effects of biodiversity on disease levels can occur as a result of the ways each 18 host species interacts with the pathogen (e.g., within-species transmission) and interspecific 19 interactions between host species (e.g., resource competition and between-species transmis-20 sion). 21The dilution effect argues that increased host biodiversity decreases disease prevalence 22 (i.e., the proportion of infected hosts in a population) (Keesing et al., 2006). However, when 23 and whether increased host biodiversity reduces disease prevalence (dilution) or increases 24 disease prevalence (amplification) in a focal host population has been debated in the litera-25 ture (e.g., Lafferty and Wood 2013; Ostfeld and Keesing 2013; Wood and Lafferty 2013 and 26 reviewed in Rohr et al. 2019). Empirical evidence is mixed: a recent meta-analysis found 27 general empirical support for dilution (Civitello et al., 2015), but amplification also occurs 28 (Wood et al., 2014; Venesky et al., 2014; Searle et al., 2016). This implies that increased host 29 biodiversity likely has context-dependent effects (Salkeld et al., 2013), motivating calls for 30 theory that identifies specific biological mechanisms promoting amplification versus dilution 31 (Buhnerkempe et al., 2015; Halsey, 2019; Rohr et al., 2019). 32Current theory (Keesing et al., 2006(Keesing et al., , 2010 predicts that amplification versus dilution gen-33 erally depends on how host biodiversity affects host-pathogen encounter rates, susceptible 34 host densities, and transmission, mortality and...

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Towards common ground in the biodiversity–disease debate

Cited by 202 publications

References 98 publications

Biodiversity loss underlies the dilution effect of biodiversity

Biodiversity loss underlies the dilution effect of biodiversity

Perspective: Climate Change and the Relocation of Indonesia’s Capital to Borneo

The context dependent effects of host competence, competition, and the pathogen transmission mode on disease prevalence

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