Biodiversity and disease: a synthesis of ecological perspectives on Lyme disease transmission.
September 17, 2013
Recent reviews have argued that disease control is among the ecosystem services yielded by biodiversity. Lyme disease (LD) is commonly cited as the best example of the ‘diluting’ effect of biodiversity on disease transmission, but many studies document the opposite relationship, showing that human LD risk can increase with forestation. Here, we unify these divergent perspectives and find strong evidence for a positive link between biodiversity and LD at broad spatial scales (urban to suburban to rural) and equivocal evidence for a negative link between biodiversity and LD at varying levels of biodiversity within forests. This finding suggests that, across zoonotic disease agents, the biodiversity–disease relationship is scale dependent and complex.
Citation Information
Publication Year | 2013 |
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Title | Biodiversity and disease: a synthesis of ecological perspectives on Lyme disease transmission. |
DOI | 10.1016/j.tree.2012.10.011 |
Authors | Chelsea L. Wood, Kevin D. Lafferty |
Publication Type | Article |
Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
Series Title | Trends in Ecology and Evolution |
Index ID | 70125646 |
Record Source | USGS Publications Warehouse |
USGS Organization | Western Ecological Research Center |