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Large-scale disease patterns explained by climatic seasonality and host traits

  • Ecosystem ecology – original research
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Abstract

Understanding factors affecting the distribution of vector-borne diseases in space and across species is of prime importance to conservation ecologists. Identifying the underlying patterns of disease requires a perspective encompassing large spatial scales. However, few studies have investigated disease ecology from a macroecological perspective. Hence, we use a global disease database to uncover worldwide infection patterns using avian malaria (Plasmodium) as a model for vector-borne disease transmission. Using data on 678 bird species from 442 locations, we show that environmental variables likely to synchronize bird and vector abundance are the key factors dictating infection risk for birds. Moreover, direct effects of host traits on exposure risk as well as potential trade-offs in resource allocation were also shown to affect disease susceptibility, with larger bird species being more prone to infection. Our results suggest that considering evolutionary strategies and factors influencing spatial overlap between hosts and vectors is crucial for understanding worldwide patterns of disease transmission success.

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Data accessibility statement

Data will be deposited in public repository (Dryad or others) upon acceptance of the article.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Lucas Deschamps and Jean-François Doherty for their comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. We would also like to thank all the authors who forwarded original datasets to help complete the analysis, especially Alan Fecchio and Erika Martins Braga. A. Filion is supported by a University of Otago Doctoral Scholarship, A. Eriksson by a CAPES Grant (process number 88881.187634/2018-01) and F. Jorge by a grant from the Marsden Fund (to R. Poulin).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, University of Otago, 340 Great King St, Dunedin, 9016, New Zealand

    Antoine Filion, Fátima Jorge & Robert Poulin

  2. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Conservação, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, 79070-900, Brazil

    Alan Eriksson

  3. Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research, PO Box 69040, Lincoln, 7640, New Zealand

    Chris N. Niebuhr

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  1. Antoine Filion
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Contributions

RP conceived the idea. AF, AE, CNN, FJ and RP designed the study. AF collected the data and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors were involved in data analyses, contributed critically to the drafts, and gave final approval for publication.

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Correspondence to Antoine Filion.

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Communicated by Indrikis Krams.

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Filion, A., Eriksson, A., Jorge, F. et al. Large-scale disease patterns explained by climatic seasonality and host traits. Oecologia 194, 723–733 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04782-x

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