Pathways for Novel Epidemiology: Plant–Pollinator–Pathogen Networks and Global Change

Highlights

• Flower sharing amongst pollinator species represents a conduit for interspecific insect pathogen transmission.

• Plant–pollinator network structure and species traits shape pathogen dynamics in the pollinator community.

• Global change (climate change, invasive species, agricultural intensification, and urbanisation) can modulate species interactions, host susceptibility, and pathogen virulence, thereby creating novel epidemiological risks.

• Multiple global change effects can interact in synergistic or antagonistic ways, creating additional risks and complicating predictions of pathogen dynamics and evolution.

• Flower-mediated insect pathogen transmission provides a model framework to understand the interplay of interspecific pathogen dynamics under global change.

Multiple global change pressures, and their interplay, cause plant–pollinator extinctions and modify species assemblages and interactions. This may alter the risks of pathogen host shifts, intra- or interspecific pathogen spread, and emergence of novel population or community epidemics. Flowers are hubs for pathogen transmission. Consequently, the structure of plant–pollinator interaction networks may be pivotal in pathogen host shifts and modulating disease dynamics. Traits of plants, pollinators, and pathogens may also govern the interspecific spread of pathogens. Pathogen spillover–spillback between managed and wild pollinators risks driving the evolution of virulence and community epidemics. Understanding this interplay between host–pathogen dynamics and global change will be crucial to predicting impacts on pollinators and pollination underpinning ecosystems and human wellbeing.