The number of documented American orthohantaviruses has increased significantly over recent decades, but most fundamental research has remained focused on just two of them: Andes virus (ANDV) and Sin Nombre virus (SNV). The majority of American orthohantaviruses are known to cause disease in humans, and most of these pathogenic strains were not described prior to human cases, indicating the importance of understanding all members of the virus clade. In this review, we summarize information on the ecology of under-studied rodent-borne American orthohantaviruses to form general conclusions and highlight important gaps in knowledge. Information regarding the presence and genetic diversity of many orthohantaviruses throughout the distributional range of their hosts is minimal and would significantly benefit from virus isolations to indicate a reservoir role. Additionally, few studies have investigated the mechanisms underlying transmission routes and factors affecting the environmental persistence of orthohantaviruses, limiting our understanding of factors driving prevalence fluctuations. As landscapes continue to change, host ranges and human exposure to orthohantaviruses likely will as well. Research on the ecology of neglected orthohantaviruses is necessary for understanding both current and future threats to human health.

1. Identifying reservoir host species is crucial for understanding the ecology of multihost pathogens and predicting risks of pathogen spillover from wildlife to people.

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As anthropogenic factors continue to degrade natural areas, habitat management is needed to restore and maintain biodiversity. However, the impacts of different habitat management regimes on ecosystems have largely focused on vegetation analyses, with limited evaluation of downstream effects on wildlife. We compared the effects

The efficacy of animal acoustic communication depends on signal transmission through an oft-cluttered environment. Anthropogenic-induced changes in vegetation may affect sound propagation and thus habitat quality, but few studies have explored this hypothesis. In the southwestern United States, fire suppression and cattle grazing have facilitated displacement of grasslands by pinyon-juniper woodlands. Northern grasshopper mice (Onychomys leucogaster) inhabit regions impacted by juniper encroachment and produce long-distance vocalizations to advertise their presence to conspecifics. In this study, we coupled acoustic recordings and electrophysiological measurements of hearing sensitivity from wild mice in the laboratory with sound transmission experiments of synthesized calls in the field to estimate the active space (maximum distance that stimuli are detected) of grasshopper mouse vocalizations. We found that mice can detect loud (85 dB SPL at 1 m) 11.6 kHz vocalizations at 28 dB SPL. Sound transmission experiments revealed that signal active space is approximately 50 m. However, we found no effect of woody plant encroachment on call propagation because juniper and woody plant density were inversely associated and both present barriers to a 9 cm mouse advertising at ground level. Our data indicate that woody plant encroachment does not directly impact the efficacy of grasshopper mouse communication, but vegetation shifts may negatively impact mice via alternative mechanisms. Identifying the maximum distance that vocalizations function provides an important metric to understand the ecological context of species-specific signalling and potential responses to environmental change.