Leveraging Long-Term Ecological Research Initiatives Into the One Health Synthesis.

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Epidemiology
• Conservation Biology

Background:

• One Health initiatives often overlook connections between human health, biodiversity loss, and ecosystem changes.
• Small mammals, disease vectors, and ecosystem shifts in the Great Plains highlight data challenges in One Health research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how habitat changes, specifically woody encroachment, affect small mammal communities and disease vector dynamics in the Great Plains.
• To demonstrate the potential for emerging zoonotic diseases due to altered host-vector-pathogen interactions.
• To advocate for a unified data approach for One Health research.

Main Methods:

• Assembled small mammal specimens to analyze species turnover and intra-specific diversity using mitochondrial sequencing.
• Assessed ectoparasite infection rates and correlated them with habitat changes.
• Utilized public data aggregators to combine diverse datasets for a comprehensive analysis.

Main Results:

• Woody encroachment transformed grasslands into 50% woody cover, leading to a shift from grassland rodent species (Peromyscus sonoriensis) to woodland species (Peromyscus leucopus).
• Mammal species richness decreased, while the carrying capacity for high-risk hosts and disease vectors approximately doubled.
• Altered species distributions increase the contact potential between previously separated hosts, vectors, and pathogens.

Conclusions:

• Ecological shifts driven by habitat changes in the Great Plains create a heightened risk for emerging zoonotic diseases.
• Integrating diverse data sources, including specimen data, ecological research, and pathogen surveillance, is crucial for understanding and mitigating these risks.
• A "One Data" approach is essential for linking data repositories to advance epidemiological understanding and improve human health outcomes within the One Health framework.