Defuse the dilution effect debate

Halsey, Samniqueka J.

doi:10.1038/s41559-018-0764-3

Cited by 36 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Context dependencies. Some attribute disagreements over the biodiversity-disease relationship to an overemphasis on generality 30 ; while there might be context dependencies for the biodiversitydisease relationship, we think it is worthwhile to seek the rules that govern when and where each form of biodiversity-disease relationship might emerge. For example, there might be common traits of parasite species that are affected by biodiversity and common traits of host species that amplify or dilute disease 13,14,58,59 .…”

Section: Metrics Of Disease and Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other studies support alternatives to the dilution effect, such as no relationship, a context-dependent relationship or an amplification effect 6,[11][12][13][14][24][25][26] -defined by Keesing et al 27 as the opposite of the dilution effect, or a positive relationship between biodiversity and risk of a particular infectious disease. Debate has also centred on whether managing species composition or biodiversity in general is more effective at reducing risk and whether human diseases are exceptions to general rules about biodiversity-infectious disease associations 6,9,13,14,16,17,[28][29][30] . Hypotheses regarding biodiversity-disease relationships have potentially important public health, management and policy implications, because they imply that changes to biodiversity could increase or decrease disease, thus suggesting that biodiversity conservation could have unaccounted costs or benefits, respectively 1,6,[11][12][13][14]20,[24][25][26]31 .…”

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Towards common ground in the biodiversity–disease debate

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Section: Metrics Of Disease and Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Towards common ground in the biodiversity–disease debate

et al. 2019

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“…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%

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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“…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

Preprint

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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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Defuse the dilution effect debate

Cited by 36 publications

References 20 publications

Towards common ground in the biodiversity–disease debate

Towards common ground in the biodiversity–disease debate

Biodiversity loss underlies the dilution effect of biodiversity

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

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