Freshwater Snails at the Biodiversity-Climate-Health Nexus: A Call to Recognize Neglected Models for Eco-Evolutionary...

Freshwater ecosystems are central but overlooked in frameworks addressing the biodiversity-climate-health nexus. Among their inhabitants, freshwater snails occupy a unique position at the intersection of ecology, evolution, and disease. They are both sentinels and mediators of environmental change-sensitive to climatic fluctuations, pollutants, and habitat degradation-while serving as intermediate hosts of major zoonotic parasites such as Fasciola and Schistosoma spp. Their amazing ecological plasticity, diverse reproductive systems, and capacity for rapid adaptation make them powerful yet under-used models to explore how multiple stressors shape biodiversity dynamics, host-parasite interactions, and disease risk. Here, I advocate for the recognition of freshwater snails as integrative model systems linking eco-evolutionary processes with epidemiological outcomes under global change. Their study can reveal general principles on adaptation to multi-stressor environments, community assembly, and vector competence evolution-core questions in both ecology and One Health. I propose a conceptual framework situating freshwater snails at the biodiversity-climate-health nexus to stimulate interdisciplinary research bridging evolutionary ecology, epidemiology, and freshwater conservation. Recognizing these neglected organisms as "nexus sentinels" can advance our understanding of how global change reshapes ecological and health outcomes across aquatic ecosystems.