The scaling of host density with richness affects the direction, shape, and detectability of diversity-disease relationships.

ABSTRACT: Pathogen transmission responds differently to host richness and abundance, two unique components of host diversity. However, the heated debate around whether biodiversity generally increases or decreases disease has not considered the relationships between host richness and abundance that may exist in natural systems. Here we use a multi-species model to study how the scaling of total host community abundance with species richness mediates diversity-disease relationships. For pathogens with density-dependent transmission, non-monotonic trends emerge between pathogen transmission and host richness when host community abundance saturates with richness. Further, host species identity drives high variability in pathogen transmission in depauperate communities, but this effect diminishes as hos

SUBMITTER: Mihaljevic JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4029764 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature