Metacommunity and phylogenetic structure determine wildlife and zoonotic infectious disease patterns in time and space

Abstract

The potential for disease transmission at the interface of wildlife, domestic animals and humans has become a major concern for public health and conservation biology. Research in this subject is commonly conducted at local scales while the regional context is neglected. We argue that prevalence of infection at local and regional levels is influenced by three mechanisms occurring at the landscape level in a metacommunity context. First, (1) dispersal, colonization, and extinction of pathogens, reservoir or vector hosts, and nonreservoir hosts, may be due to stochastic and niche-based processes, thus determining distribution of all species, and then their potential interactions, across local communities (metacommunity structure). Second, (2) anthropogenic processes may drive environmental filtering of hosts, nonhosts, and pathogens. Finally, (3) phylogenetic diversity relative to reservoir or vector host(s), within and between local communities may facilitate pathogen persistence and circulation. Using a metacommunity approach, public heath scientists may better evaluate the factors that predispose certain times and places for the origin and emergence of infectious diseases. The multidisciplinary approach we describe fits within a comprehensive One Health and Ecohealth framework addressing zoonotic infectious disease outbreaks and their relationship to their hosts, other animals, humans, and the environment.

Landscape ecology of Trypanosoma cruzi in the southern Yucatan Peninsula

“…As has been pointed out elsewhere, host metacommunities are a renewed concern in disease ecology, particularly in multi-host pathogens (Suzán et al, 2015). In this study wehave identified associations of parasite transmission with host dispersal ability and habitat filtering, within the framework of altered yet similar mammal assemblages among habitats and over a progressively anthropogenic gradient.…”

Urbanization and Disease Emergence: Dynamics at the Wildlife–Livestock–Human Interface

“…As signaled by the emerging field of community disease ecology (reviewed in [87]), new approaches are required to investigate disease emergence, that shift focus from the pathogen to understanding the processes underlying emergence [35]. In response, disease ecologists have moved towards adopting principles from community ecology; including metapopulation and network theory , trait-based approaches and a consideration of processes acting across biological scales 27, 53, 84, 86, 87, 88, 89. The development of new modeling techniques will play a key role, and several frameworks have been suggested, that focus on integrating broad methodologies and crossdisciplinary collaborations to investigate causation in disease emergence 53, 90, 91.…”

“…This tool has proved useful in describing the spatial distribution of a number of pathogens (e.g., distribution patterns of yellow fever virus in Venezuela and evolutionary spread of influenza viruses in migratory birds 103, 104), and similar techniques have been embraced in community ecology [105]. Although the application of ecological trait-mapping onto phylogenies to understand how abiotic and biotic factors relate to parasite phylogenetic structure has not been explored for disease ecology, its potential is recognized by Suzán et al [89].…”

A Multiscale Approach to Plant Disease Using the Metacommunity Concept

“…Thus, common responses examined for metapopulations are the presence or absence of the focal species (patch occupancy and global persistence), whereas the local diversity of species (alpha diversity) and compositional similarity among patches (beta diversity) are common metrics for metacommunity models. Although this framework was developed for populations and communities of free-living organisms (6,78), it also may lead to new questions and insights into host-pathogen interactions and communities of microbes interacting within a host (e.g., 85,112,129).…”