Ten misunderstandings of dilution effects Provisionally Accepted
Richard S. Ostfeld
Felicia Keesing- 1Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, United States
- 2Bard College, United States
Dilution effects occur when high diversity in a biological community reduces the transmission of a pathogen. In the ~25 years since the modern definition of the term, research on the mechanisms, generality, and applications of dilution effects has burgeoned, vastly improving scientific understanding of the impacts of biodiversity and biodiversity loss on infectious disease. This essay briefly describes the history of the dilution effect concept. It then discusses 10 misunderstandings that have arisen, together with re-framings and corrections. Examples of misunderstandings include the simultaneous occurrence of dilution and amplification effects in a given disease system, a priori specification of the spatial scale of dilution effects, claims about universality of dilution effects, and claims that dilution effects are controversial.
Keywords: Dilution effects, Biodiversity, Infectious Disease, Lyme Disease, Zoonoses, Zoonotic disease
Received: 02 Apr 2024;
Accepted: 29 Apr 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 Ostfeld and Keesing. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Dr. Richard S. Ostfeld, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, United States