The Rise of Disease Ecology and Its Implications for Parasitology— A Review

Abstract

: Many fields in the biological sciences have witnessed a shift away from organism- or taxon-focused research and teaching in favor of more conceptual and process-driven paradigms. The field of parasitology is no exception, despite the diversity of topics and taxa it encompasses. Concurrently, however, interest in disease ecology has increased dramatically, suggesting new opportunities that merit exploration, as well as the need for parasitology to promote its long history of ecological research to do so. Here we undertake a quantitative analysis of metrics relating to publications, research funding, career opportunities, and undergraduate teaching to comprehensively illustrate the rising prominence of disease ecology. While we distinguish generally between the fields of parasitology and disease ecology, we also emphasize the common interests and complementary approaches that enhanced integration could offer. To illustrate why enhanced integration between these 2 fields is increasingly critical, we highlight 2 successful areas in which parasitology and disease ecology have intersected (community assembly and scale, and the effects of natural enemies on life history traits). We conclude by identifying "frontier topics" that will benefit from greater cooperation and interaction between these currently relatively separate areas and the need for principal investigators to identify and communicate changes in their discipline to students and trainees, which will collectively result in many possible new benefits and prospects for current and future researchers.

Increases and decreases in marine disease reports in an era of global change

“…It is also possible that increased research effort on disease, in general, could drive increases in the literature proxy. Koprivnikar & Johnson [31] conducted a literature analysis from 1970 to 2014 and determined that the per cent of publications on disease has increased in recent years, as has funding for disease research [31]. However, their search includes all publications about disease, not just the reports of disease in wild marine populations, as in the present study.…”

“…For all the analyses, we (i) used only records from natural populations to provide the best estimate of disease, (ii) normalized disease reports, and (iii) incorporated a 3-year time lag. These approaches should minimize the effects of funding cycles, research effort and time delays on patterns in disease records [30,31]. Grouping hosts into high-level taxa also reduces the influence of fluctuations in publication rates that may occur in a single host-parasite system or for a specific disease type [30,32].…”

Prevalence of Ehrlichia-, Babesia-, and Hepatozoon-infected brown dog ticks in Khon Kaen Province, Northeast Thailand

“…Moreover, climate change is one of the greatest threats to humans and animals in the 21 st century, affecting vector biology and disease transmission. Several studies have discussed climate change and its impact on tick-borne diseases worldwide [38][39][40][41][42]. Warming of the global temperature directly impacts vector-borne diseases, which affect vector development, vector physiology, and vector-host-pathogen interactions [40,42], thereby increasing the tick populations and tick-borne pathogens.…”

Demography, education, and research trends in the interdisciplinary field of disease ecology

“…Disease ecology, in part, adapted and developed population biology theory to address societal needs (Johnson et al, 2015 ; Koprivnikar & Johnson, 2016 ; Scheiner & Rosenthal, 2006 ). Key among these is the urgency to understand and address novel disease threats, which are rooted in natural systems but are often exacerbated by societal inequalities (Carlson & Mendenhall, 2019 ).…”