Local scale effects of disease on biodiversity.

EcoHealth
Katherine F SmithDov F Sax

Abstract

To date, ecologists and conservation biologists have focused much of their attention on the population and ecosystem effects of disease at regional scales and the role that diseases play in global species extinction. Far less research has been dedicated to identifying the effects that diseases can have on local scale species assemblages. We examined the role of infectious disease in structuring local biodiversity. Our intention was to illustrate how variable outcomes can occur by focusing on three case studies: the influence of chestnut blight on forest communities dominated by chestnut trees, the influence of red-spot disease on urchin barrens and kelp forests, and the influence of sylvatic plague on grassland communities inhabited by prairie dogs. Our findings reveal that at local scales infectious disease seems to play an important, though unpredictable, role in structuring species diversity. Through our case studies, we have shown that diseases can cause drastic population declines or local extirpations in keystone species, ecosystem engineers, and otherwise abundant species. These changes in local diversity may be very important, particularly when considered alongside potentially corresponding changes in community structur...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jul 31, 2013·International Journal for Parasitology·R C Andrew Thompson
Sep 17, 2013·Conservation Biology : the Journal of the Society for Conservation Biology·Matthew J HeardElizabeth Ryan
Sep 6, 2019·Microorganisms·Xiaoyan NiuQiongbo Hu
Feb 17, 2017·The Journal of Parasitology·Mariana Malzoni FurtadoJosé Soares Ferreira Neto
May 4, 2018·Ecology and Evolution·Monica M Moritsch, Peter T Raimondi
Oct 27, 2011·Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology·A J Lymbery, R C A Thompson

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