Movement can mediate temporal mismatches between resource availability and biological events in host-pathogen...

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Epidemiology
• Global Change Biology

Background:

• Global change alters biological event timing, creating mismatches with resource availability.
• These temporal mismatches can negatively impact species populations and interactions, including host-pathogen systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how temporal mismatches between host life-history events and seasonal resource availability affect host-pathogen coexistence.
• To understand the role of host movement and spatial distribution of disease under such mismatches.

Main Methods:

• Adapted an established individual-based model of host-pathogen dynamics.
• Simulated a viral agent in a social host, incorporating explicit host movement decisions.
• Analyzed the impact of varying degrees of temporal mismatch on disease persistence and spatial distribution.

Main Results:

• Temporal mismatches between host life history and resource availability marginally reduced host-pathogen coexistence.
• Increasing temporal mismatch led to a spatial shift from even disease distribution to disease hotspots.
• Host movement and habitat-dependent movement facilitated demographic rescue, mitigating negative coexistence effects.

Conclusions:

• Temporal mismatches can alter disease dynamics, leading to spatial disease hotspots.
• Host movement decisions and landscape structure can buffer negative impacts of temporal mismatches on host-pathogen coexistence.
• Findings have implications for disease management strategies in the context of global change and ecological disturbances.