Infectious disease as a driver of declines and extinctions.
Hamish McCallum1, Johannes Foufopoulos2, Laura F Grogan1
1Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security, Griffith University, Southport, QLD, Australia.
Cambridge Prisms. Extinction
|March 13, 2025
Summary
Infectious diseases drive extinctions, often underestimated due to co-occurring factors. Understanding and mitigating these threats, exacerbated by human activities, is crucial for biodiversity conservation.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Conservation Biology
- Pathogen Ecology
Background:
- Infectious diseases are significant, yet often underestimated, drivers of species extinctions and population declines.
- Disease impacts are frequently overlooked or attributed to other extinction drivers like habitat loss.
- Chytridiomycosis in amphibians serves as a notable exception where disease is recognized as a major threat.
Purpose of the Study:
- To address the challenges in attributing extinctions to infectious diseases.
- To explore the underlying factors contributing to disease-driven extinctions.
- To examine how anthropogenic influences exacerbate extinction risks from infectious diseases and discuss mitigation strategies.
Main Methods:
- Literature review and synthesis of existing research on infectious diseases and extinction.
- Analysis of the interplay between anthropogenic factors (climate change, habitat destruction, invasive species) and disease dynamics.
- Conceptual framework development for understanding disease-driven extinction.
Main Results:
- Infectious diseases are a critical factor in biodiversity loss, often masked by other stressors.
- Anthropogenic activities significantly increase the risk of disease-related extinctions.
- Effective mitigation requires integrated approaches addressing both disease and its environmental drivers.
Conclusions:
- Infectious diseases represent a substantial and underappreciated threat to global biodiversity.
- Human-induced environmental changes amplify the impact of pathogens, accelerating extinction rates.
- Proactive management and conservation strategies are essential to combat disease-driven extinctions.
More Related Videos
07:37Using Terminal Transferase-mediated dUTP Nick End-labelling TUNEL and Caspase 3/7 Assays to Measure Epidermal Cell Death in Frogs with Chytridiomycosis
Published on: May 16, 2018
10.4K
08:24Inoculating Anopheles gambiae Mosquitoes with Beads to Induce and Measure the Melanization Immune Response
Published on: January 12, 2017
7.9K
Related Concept Videos
01:50Threats to Biodiversity
22.0K
There have been five major extinction events throughout geological history, resulting in the elimination of biodiversity, followed by a rebound of species that adapted to the new conditions. In the current geological epoch, the Holocene, there is a sixth extinction event in progress. This mass extinction has been attributed to human activities and is thus provisionally called the Anthropocene. In 2019 the human population reached 7.7 billion people and is projected to comprise 10 billion by...
22.0K
02:07Conservation of Declining Populations
9.6K
Conservation of declining population focuses on ways of detecting, diagnosing, and halting a population decline. The approach uses methods to prevent populations from going extinct.
9.6K
01:09Mutation, Gene Flow, and Genetic Drift
57.7K
In a population that is not at Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, the frequency of alleles changes over time. Therefore, any deviations from the five conditions of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium can alter the genetic variation of a given population. Conditions that change the genetic variability of a population include mutations, natural selection, non-random mating, gene flow, and genetic drift (small population size).
57.7K
02:04Conservation of Small Populations
13.1K
Small population sizes put a species at extreme risk of extinction due to a lack of variation, and a consequent decrease in adaptability. This weakens the chances of survival under pressures such as climate change, competition from other species, or new diseases. Large populations are more likely to survive pressures such as these, as such populations are more likely to harbor individuals that have genetic variants that are adaptive under new stresses. Small populations are much less...
13.1K
02:31Habitat Fragmentation
17.4K
Habitat fragmentation describes the division of a more extensive, continuous habitat into smaller, discontinuous areas. Human activities such as land conversion, as well as slower geological processes leading to changes in the physical environment, are the two leading causes of habitat fragmentation. The fragmentation process typically follows the same steps: perforation, dissection, fragmentation, shrinkage, and attrition.
17.4K
03:33Genetic Drift
39.2K
Natural selection—probably the most well-known evolutionary mechanism—increases the prevalence of traits that enhance survival and reproduction. However, evolution does not merely propagate favorable traits, nor does it always benefit populations.
39.2K