Community ecology and emerging infectious disease: idiosyncracies of local biodiversity

Background/Question/Methods

A growing number of studies have highlighted the possible links between biodiversity and the risk of emerging infectious diseases. These potential links offer exciting opportunities to instigate initiatives that simultaneously conserve nature and protect human health. However, evidence for these links remains limited and controversial. Here we analyze the effect sizes from a number of studies (n=18) examining relationships between biodiversity and the ecology of hantavirus, West Nile virus and Lyme disease, and use Sin Nombre hantavirus ecology in California as a case study.

Results/Conclusions

We demonstrate that there is surprisingly little evidence to suggest that declines in biodiversity, generated by anthropogenic change, generally result in increased risk of zoonotic disease. Rather, biodiversity influences disease risk idiosyncratically, and its importance is dependent on the local context of host-pathogen dynamics, host community ecology and human exposure rates. Furthermore, the links between disease risk and actual incidence of disease in human populations are largely unaddressed and remain a challenge to disease ecologists.