{"id":46086,"date":"2024-05-08T15:06:32","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T15:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/08\/environmental-changes-are-fueling-human-animal-and-plant-diseases-study-finds\/"},"modified":"2024-05-08T15:06:33","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T15:06:33","slug":"environmental-changes-are-fueling-human-animal-and-plant-diseases-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/08\/environmental-changes-are-fueling-human-animal-and-plant-diseases-study-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Environmental Changes Are Fueling Human, Animal and Plant Diseases, Study Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/08\/science\/08BIODIVERSITY-DISEASE\/08BIODIVERSITY-DISEASE-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,549&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Environmental Changes Are Fueling Human, Animal and Plant Diseases, Study Finds\" title=\"Environmental Changes Are Fueling Human, Animal and Plant Diseases, Study Finds\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Several large-scale, human-driven changes to the planet \u2014 including climate change, the loss of biodiversity and the spread of invasive species \u2014 are making infectious diseases more dangerous to people, animals and plants, according to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-024-07380-6\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a new study.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Scientists have documented these effects before in more targeted studies that have focused on specific diseases and ecosystems. For instance, they have found that a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/02\/14\/health\/malaria-mosquitoes-climate-change.html\" title=\"\">warming climate may be helping malaria expand<\/a> in Africa and that a decline in wildlife diversity may be boosting Lyme disease cases in North America.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the new research, a meta-analysis of nearly 1,000 previous studies, suggests that these patterns are relatively consistent around the globe and across the tree of life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s a big step forward in the science,\u201d said Colin Carlson, a biologist at Georgetown University, who was not an author of the new analysis. \u201cThis paper is one of the strongest pieces of evidence that I think has been published that shows how important it is health systems start getting ready to exist in a world with climate change, with biodiversity loss.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In what is likely to come as a more surprising finding, the researchers also found that urbanization decreased the risk of infectious disease.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The new analysis, which was published in Nature on Wednesday, focused on five \u201cglobal change drivers\u201d that are altering ecosystems across the planet: biodiversity change, climate change, chemical pollution, the introduction of nonnative species and habitat loss or change.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The researchers compiled data from scientific papers that examined how at least one of these factors affected various infectious-disease outcomes, such as severity or prevalence. The final data set included nearly 3,000 observations on disease risks for humans, animals and plants on every continent except for Antarctica.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The researchers found that, across the board, four of the five trends they studied \u2014 biodiversity change, the introduction of new species, climate change and chemical pollution \u2014 tended to increase disease risk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt means that we\u2019re likely picking up general biological patterns,\u201d said Jason Rohr, an infectious disease ecologist at the University of Notre Dame and senior author of the study. \u201cIt suggests that there are similar sorts of mechanisms and processes that are likely occurring in plants, animals and humans.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The loss of biodiversity played an especially large role in driving up disease risk, the researchers found. Many scientists have posited that biodiversity can protect against disease through a phenomenon known as the dilution effect.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The theory holds that parasites and pathogens, which rely on having abundant hosts in order to survive, will evolve to favor species that are common, rather than those that are rare, Dr. Rohr said. And as biodiversity declines, rare species tend to disappear first. \u201cThat means that the species that remain are the competent ones, the ones that are really good at transmitting disease,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Lyme disease is one oft-cited example. White-footed mice, which are the primary reservoir for the disease, have become more dominant on the landscape, as other rarer mammals have disappeared, Dr. Rohr said. That shift may partly explain why Lyme disease rates have risen in the United States. (The extent to which the dilution effect contributes to Lyme disease risk has been the subject of debate, and other factors, including climate change, are likely to be at play as well.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Other environmental changes could amplify disease risks in a wide variety of ways. For instance, introduced species can bring new pathogens with them, and chemical pollution can stress organisms\u2019 immune systems. Climate change can alter animal movements and habitats, bringing new species into contact and allowing them <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/04\/28\/science\/climate-change-virus-spillover.html\" title=\"\">to swap pathogens<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Notably, the fifth global environmental change that the researchers studied \u2014 habitat loss or change \u2014 appeared to reduce disease risk. At first glance, the findings might appear to be at odds with previous studies, which have shown that deforestation can increase the risk of diseases ranging from malaria to Ebola. But the overall trend toward reduced risk was driven by one specific type of habitat change: increasing urbanization. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The reason may be that urban areas often have better sanitation and public health infrastructure than rural ones \u2014 or simply because there are fewer plants and animals to serve as disease hosts in urban areas. The lack of plant and animal life is \u201cnot a good thing,\u201d Dr. Carlson said. \u201cAnd it also doesn\u2019t mean that the animals that are in the cities are healthier.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And the new study does not negate the idea that forest loss can fuel disease; instead, deforestation increases risk in some circumstances and reduces it in others, Dr. Rohr said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Indeed, although this kind of meta-analysis is valuable for revealing broad patterns, it can obscure some of the nuances and exceptions that are important for managing specific diseases and ecosystems, Dr. Carlson noted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Moreover, most of the studies included in the analysis examined just a single global change drive. But, in the real world, organisms are contending with many of these stressors simultaneously. \u201cThe next step is to better understand the connections among them,\u201d Dr. Rohr said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/08\/health\/environment-climate-health.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Several large-scale, human-driven changes to the planet \u2014 including climate change, the loss of biodiversity and the spread of invasive species \u2014 are making infectious diseases more dangerous to people, animals and plants, according to a new study. Scientists have documented these effects before in more targeted studies that have focused on specific diseases and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/08\/science\/08BIODIVERSITY-DISEASE\/08BIODIVERSITY-DISEASE-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3909,10589,3648,2302,10538,4261,5642,250],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46086"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46086"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46088,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46086\/revisions\/46088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}