Title |
Parasite biodiversity faces extinction and redistribution in a changing climate
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Published in |
Science Advances, September 2017
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DOI | 10.1126/sciadv.1602422 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Colin J. Carlson, Kevin R. Burgio, Eric R. Dougherty, Anna J. Phillips, Veronica M. Bueno, Christopher F. Clements, Giovanni Castaldo, Tad A. Dallas, Carrie A. Cizauskas, Graeme S. Cumming, Jorge Doña, Nyeema C. Harris, Roger Jovani, Sergey Mironov, Oliver C. Muellerklein, Heather C. Proctor, Wayne M. Getz |
Abstract |
Climate change is a well-documented driver of both wildlife extinction and disease emergence, but the negative impacts of climate change on parasite diversity are undocumented. We compiled the most comprehensive spatially explicit data set available for parasites, projected range shifts in a changing climate, and estimated extinction rates for eight major parasite clades. On the basis of 53,133 occurrences capturing the geographic ranges of 457 parasite species, conservative model projections suggest that 5 to 10% of these species are committed to extinction by 2070 from climate-driven habitat loss alone. We find no evidence that parasites with zoonotic potential have a significantly higher potential to gain range in a changing climate, but we do find that ectoparasites (especially ticks) fare disproportionately worse than endoparasites. Accounting for host-driven coextinctions, models predict that up to 30% of parasitic worms are committed to extinction, driven by a combination of direct and indirect pressures. Despite high local extinction rates, parasite richness could still increase by an order of magnitude in some places, because species successfully tracking climate change invade temperate ecosystems and replace native species with unpredictable ecological consequences. |
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Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
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United States | 55 | 25% |
United Kingdom | 16 | 7% |
Australia | 10 | 5% |
Spain | 8 | 4% |
France | 6 | 3% |
Finland | 4 | 2% |
Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of | 4 | 2% |
Mexico | 3 | 1% |
Sweden | 3 | 1% |
Other | 21 | 10% |
Unknown | 89 | 41% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 138 | 63% |
Scientists | 67 | 31% |
Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 10 | 5% |
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 4 | 2% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Unknown | 413 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Ph. D. Student | 81 | 20% |
Researcher | 61 | 15% |
Student > Bachelor | 59 | 14% |
Student > Master | 54 | 13% |
Other | 19 | 5% |
Other | 60 | 15% |
Unknown | 79 | 19% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 165 | 40% |
Environmental Science | 55 | 13% |
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 22 | 5% |
Veterinary Science and Veterinary Medicine | 17 | 4% |
Immunology and Microbiology | 9 | 2% |
Other | 38 | 9% |
Unknown | 107 | 26% |