Climate Change, Ecosystems, and Disease: Understanding Their Interconnected Impacts on Health and Biodiversity

The effects of climate change, ecosystem dynamics, and disease ecology on global biodiversity and public health form a critical domain of inquiry. Changes in temperature, precipitation patterns, and other climatic variables are significantly altering ecosystems worldwide. This not only leads to shifts in species distributions and ecosystem functions but also affects biodiversity through habitat degradation and altered ecological networks. Such ecological disturbances are directly linked to public health by influencing the distribution and intensity of disease vectors, thereby affecting the spread of diseases like malaria and dengue.

This Research Topic aims to model the complex interactions between environmental phenomena, ecosystem dynamics, and disease environments to better understand and predict their collective impact on biodiversity and public health. By integrating climate, ecological, and epidemiological data, the research seeks to offer actionable insights that can inform conservation strategies, public health interventions, and climate change adaptation measures.

Problem Statement:

Climate change is profoundly disrupting ecosystems, leading to habitat loss, biodiversity declines, and altered species distributions. These ecological changes, coupled with increasing human encroachment into natural habitats, are driving the emergence and spread of infectious diseases, particularly zoonotic and vector-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue, and Lyme disease. The intricate connections between climate, ecosystems, and disease dynamics remain poorly understood, hindering the ability to predict and mitigate the cascading impacts on biodiversity and public health.

As ecosystems lose biodiversity, their natural capacity to regulate pathogens diminishes, increasing disease transmission risks. Simultaneously, climate-driven changes expand the range of vectors and pathogens into new regions, endangering previously unaffected populations. These interactions form complex feedback loops that threaten ecological balance and human well-being.

Proposed Solutions:

1. Develop Integrated Models: Combine climate, ecological, and epidemiological data to predict disease risks and biodiversity changes.
2. Promote Ecosystem Resilience: Implement habitat restoration and biodiversity conservation to stabilize ecosystems and reduce disease risks.
3. Enhance Surveillance Systems: Establish early-warning systems for monitoring disease dynamics and environmental changes.
4. Integrate Policies: Align public health, conservation, and climate adaptation strategies to address interlinked challenges effectively.

By bridging knowledge gaps and implementing cross-disciplinary approaches, this research aims to mitigate biodiversity loss and safeguard public health amidst global environmental change.

To gather further insights into the mechanisms driving these complex interactions, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

1. The role of climate change in altering habitat conditions, species interactions, and ecosystem services.
2. Implications of biodiversity loss for disease emergence, with a focus on zoonotic and vector-borne diseases.
3. Integrated modeling approaches for predicting disease spread in changing environmental conditions.
4. The impact of ecosystem management and restoration on disease prevention and biodiversity conservation.
5. Policy frameworks that effectively integrate climate adaptation, biodiversity conservation, and public health.

This topic also encourages the submission of various academic works, including original research, review articles, case studies, theoretical models, and policy-oriented studies that address the complex nexus between climate change, ecosystem health, and disease dynamics.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Climate-Ecosystem Interaction, Epidemiological Modeling, Eco-epidemiology, Global Warming, Biodiversity

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.