Spatial scale modulates the strength of ecological processes driving disease distributions.

ABSTRACT: Humans are altering the distribution of species by changing the climate and disrupting biotic interactions and dispersal. A fundamental hypothesis in spatial ecology suggests that these effects are scale dependent; biotic interactions should shape distributions at local scales, whereas climate should dominate at regional scales. If so, common single-scale analyses might misestimate the impacts of anthropogenic modifications on biodiversity and the environment. However, large-scale datasets necessary to test these hypotheses have not been available until recently. Here we conduct a cross-continental, cross-scale (almost five orders of magnitude) analysis of the influence of biotic and abiotic processes and human population density on the distribution of three emerging pathogens: the amphibi

SUBMITTER: Cohen JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4914148 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature