The intersection of the sciences of biogeography and infectious disease ecology

Abstract

Our understanding of disease ecology can be enhanced by the use of spatially explicit models and a biogeographic perspective. For example, disease emergence is partially a function of shifts in the geographic ranges of pathogens and hosts. Biogeographic approaches can be used to help us understand the interaction of host and pathogen diversity. Climate change is a global phenomenon that will require a biogeographic perspective if we are to predict its affect on global disease burden. Studies of disease ecology can enhance our general understanding of the effects of global change on species' distributions by providing useful case studies for developing and testing models. Possibly most important, studies of the spread of pathogens has the promise of giving us a general law of species' spread. Currently, biogeography and disease ecology are disciplinary communities with little overlap. The articles in this special feature are designed to help bridge that gap.