Ecology Drives the Worldwide Distribution of Human Diseases

By Vanina Guernier, Michael E. Hochberg, J. Guégan. PLoS Biology, 2004

646 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Identifying the factors underlying the origin and maintenance of the latitudinal diversity gradient is a central problem in ecology, but no consensus has emerged on which processes might generate this broad pattern. Interestingly, the vast majority of studies exploring the gradient have focused on free-living organisms, ignoring parasitic and infectious disease (PID) species. Here, we address the influence of environmental factors on the biological diversity of human pathogens and their global spatial organization. Using generalized linear multivariate models and Monte Carlo simulations, we conducted a series of comparative analyses to test the hypothesis that human PIDs exhibit the same global patterns of distribution as other taxonomic groups. We found a significant negative relationship between latitude and PID species richness, and a nested spatial organization, i.e., the accumulation of PID species with latitude, over large spatial scales. Additionally, our results show that climatic factors are of primary importance in explaining the link between latitude and the spatial pattern of human pathogens. Based on our findings, we propose that the global latitudinal species diversity gradient might be generated in large part by biotic interactions, providing strong support for the idea that current estimates of species diversity are substantially underestimated. When parasites and pathogens are included, estimates of total species diversity may increase by more than an order of magnitude.

Subfields: Ecology, Genetics, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/298fda6761254387c8fa232ee37ce9a9b41af7e2

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Citations in the corpus

Pathogens, personality, and culture: disease prevalence predicts worldwide variability in sociosexuality, extraversion, and openness to experience. (2008, background): “One analysis was informed by research that showed that the diversity and prevalence of infectious diseases is fundamentally a product of climate and is much greater in the tropics than it is in regions further from the Earth’s equator (Epstein, 1999; Guernier et al., 2004).”
Parasite species richness in carnivores: effects of host body mass, latitude, geographical range and population density (2007, background): “Why more parasites should be encountered further from the equator is, as pointed out above, a pattern counter to expectations and deserves further analyses, focusing particularly on the climatic mechanisms that could drive patterns of parasite species richness (Guernier et al., 2004).”
Pathogen prevalence predicts human cross-cultural variability in individualism/collectivism (2008, background): “…albeit not completely, accounted for by pathogen prevalence: the meteorological and ecological conditions associated with lower latitudes provide the ideal circumstances for the proliferation of pathogens (Guernier et al. 2004), which in turn constrain cultural values towards collectivism.”
Simulating the effects of a climate-change scenario on the geographical range and activity of forest-pathogenic fungi (2007, background): “Although parasites and pathogens are primarily dependent on the presence and density of their hosts (resource availability), climate is also an important driver of their distribution patterns (Guernier et al. 2004).”
Sampling Hubbell's neutral theory of biodiversity (2004, neutral): “…& Paquin 1987; O’Brien 1993), terrestrial vertebrates (Turner et al. 1988; Currie 1991), insects (Turner et al. 1987; Kerr et al. 1998), aquatic invertebrates (Patalas 1990), freshwater fish (Guégan et al. 1998), human pathogens (Guernier et al. 2004), corals (Fraser & Currie 1996) and other taxa.”
Species richness and evolutionary speed: the influence of temperature, water and area (2014, background): “Diversity patterns relating to latitude apply to biomes on land and in water and they apply to life forms that range from bacteria and viruses to trees and vertebrates, including both ectotherms and endotherms (Willig et al., 2003; Guernier et al., 2004; Hillebrand, 2004; Pommier et al., 2007).”
Global hotspots and correlates of emerging zoonotic diseases (2017, background): “Climatic factors have been repeatedly hypothesized as important in the global biogeography of human infectious diseases, including EIDs 30, 48, 49 .”
Is There a Latitudinal Gradient in the Importance of Biotic Interactions (2009, background): “…ectoparasites of marine fish (Rohde 2002, Rohde & Heap 1998), protozoan parasites of primates (Nunn et al. 2005), generalist parasites of carnivores (Lindenfors et al. 2007), and indirectly transmitted viruses and helminth, protozoan, and arthropod parasites of humans (Guernier et al. 2004).”
Disgust as a disease-avoidance mechanism. (2009, background): “In a detailed review of these animal behaviors, Hart (1990) proposed eight general strategies that pertain to avoiding infection.”