Disease Risk In Humans and Plants May Be Reduced Via Biodiversity

Biodiversity may be key for reducing disease and crop pests. As infectious diseases increase worldwide, it's important to find out what may reduce instances of these diseases and now, scientists may have figured out one way.

"The dilution effect hypothesis is important because it warns that human-mediated biodiversity losses can exacerbate disease outbreaks, yet is has been contentiously debated," said David Civitello, one of the researchers, in a news release.

The dilution effect hypothesis suggests that biodiversity limits outbreaks of disease among humans and wildlife. Much of the debate surrounding this hypothesis has focused on whether it applies generally or only to a few select parasites. Until now, there have been no quantitative assessments to broadly support or refute it, which has hampered understanding of this particular link.

"The dilution effect hypothesis is important because it warns that human-mediated biodiversity losses can exacerbate disease outbreaks, yet it has been contentiously debated," said David Civitello, lead author of the new study, in a news release.

In this latest study, the researchers review more than 200 assessments relating biodiversity to disease and found that the dilution effect applied broadly to many parasitic species.

"Our study found broad evidence that species-rich communities suffer less infectious disease, and the magnitude of this effect was independent of host density, study design, type and specialization of parasites, and whether the parasite infected humans or wildlife, indicating that dilution was robust across all ecological contexts examined," said Civitello. "This suggests that maintaining biodiversity in nature could reduce the abundance of many parasites of humans and wildlife. Conversely, human-induced declines in biodiversity could contribute to increases in both human and wildlife diseases."

The researchers also found that plant biodiversity reduced how many herbivore pests were present. This means that biodiversity can combat both parasites and pests.

The findings reveal a bit more about how best to combat disease and pests. This is especially important to note as the prevalence of these risks increases.

The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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