Preliminary Investigation of Schmalhausen’s Law in a Directly Transmitted Pathogen Outbreak System

ABSTRACT: The past few decades have been marked by drastic modifications to the landscape by anthropogenic processes, leading to increased variability in the environment. For populations that thrive at their distributional boundaries, these changes can affect them drastically, as Schmalhausen’s law predicts that their dynamics are more likely to be susceptible to environmental variation. Recently, this evolutionary theory has been put to the test in vector-borne disease emergences systems, and has been demonstrated effective in predicting emergence patterns. However, it has yet to be tested in a directly transmitted pathogen. Here, we provide a preliminary test of Schmalhausen’s law using data on Marburg virus outbreaks originating from spillover events. By combining the two important aspects of Sch

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PROVIDER: S-EPMC9961160 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature