Lose Biodiversity, Increase Diseases?

Thank you again to Claire Thompson, UBC BG work-study student, for contributing to Etaerio.

For the first time ever, scientists have linked a rise in infectious diseases with biodiversity loss and extinction. A team of seven researchers reviewed studies on newly discovered diseases, and have shown that emergence or reemergence of many diseases is linked to biodiversity loss. From one study in Amazonian Peru, it was found that the loss of structural diversity among trees resulting from deforestation caused higher densities of mosquitoes that transmit malaria. EPA Researcher Montira Pongsiri suggests that these findings may mark the beginning of a movement to bring epidemiology and ecology together.

Links and resources:

• Biodiversity loss can increase infectious diseases in humans via ScienceDaily
• Montira et al. 2009. Biodiversity loss affects global disease ecology. BioScience 59: 945-954

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 3:35 PM on March 11, 2010