When environmentally persistent pathogens transform good habitat into ecological traps.

ABSTRACT: Habitat quality plays an important role in the dynamics and stability of wildlife metapopulations. However, the benefits of high-quality habitat may be modulated by the presence of an environmentally persistent pathogen. In some cases, the presence of environmental pathogen reservoirs on high-quality habitat may lead to the creation of ecological traps, wherein host individuals preferentially colonize high-quality habitat, but are then exposed to increased infection risk and disease-induced mortality. We explored this possibility through the development of a stochastic patch occupancy model, where we varied the pathogen's virulence, transmission rate and environmental persistence as well as the distribution of habitat quality in the host metapopulation. This model suggests that for pathoge

SUBMITTER: Leach CB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4821283 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature