Infectious diseases in ecosystems

Abstract

Abstract Most disease ecology studies focus on a single host and a single parasite species, but disease dynamics occur in complex ecosystems with multiple pathogens, hosts, and non-host species. When a pathogen strongly impacts one species, it can have rippling effects up and down food webs. These cascading effects have occasionally been documented with serendipitous long-term data and careful experiments, several of which are described in this chapter. Additionally, when parasites interact within the host species, disease outcomes for co-infected hosts may be better or worse than single parasite infections. This chapter describes parasites with an ecosystem-level perspective, and these insights can be used to decide how best to control pathogen transmission (for the benefit of hosts) or to conserve parasite biodiversity (for the benefit of parasites and ecosystems).