Can ecosystems malfunction? Only when we co-opt them for our purposes. The anthropocentric commitment is ineliminable. New essay in Aeon on the hidden philosophy behind "ecosystem function."
aeon.co/essays/why-w...
New AAM-AGU report on climate change and infectious diseases, from attribution science to public health preparedness. I was part of the colloquium behind it. A good roadmap for where this field goes next.
asm.org/reports/role-of-climate-change-on-emerging-and-reemerging
Dan Simberloff is perhaps best known for his work that is foundational to the field of invasion biology. He recently wrote the book “Ecological Explosions: The History of Biological Invasions and Invasion Science”, which explores the history and evolution of the field. 📖
A new study finds city lights suppress dormancy more powerfully than urban warming. In late-fall enclosures near porch lights, 41% of mosquitoes skipped dormancy and fed. www.forbes.com/sites/johndr...
Banded mongooses scent-mark to keep rival groups apart. Our new paper in #EcologyAndEvolution finds those same marks create indirect pathogen contacts 16x more frequent than direct contact. Social defenses become transmission highways. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
New AAM-AGU report on climate change and infectious diseases, from attribution science to public health preparedness. I was part of the colloquium behind it. A good roadmap for where this field goes next.
asm.org/reports/role-of-climate-change-on-emerging-and-reemerging
COVID infected 17% of the Diamond Princess in a month. Hantavirus: 5% of the Hondius in five weeks. The biology explains why this outbreak won't scale. www.forbes.com/sites/johndr...
Some additional commentary from me on #Forbes
www.forbes.com/sites/johndr...
The test-negative design has real statistical limitations. It also recovers the right answer when checked against randomized trials. www.forbes.com/sites/johndr...
Video
Using behavioral observations and network simulations, we evaluate direct and indirect transmission of the MTBC pathogen M. mungi in banded mongooses. Incorporating intergroup scent marking reveals t....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
A new field study finds that city lights suppress mosquito dormancy more powerfully than urban warming, extending biting season and West Nile virus risk into late fall.
Jay Bhattacharya dismissed the test-negative design as 'crap.' The biostatistics literature tells a different story.
www.forbes.com
An ecologist explains why the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak, while serious, will not become the next pandemic. The biology of Andes virus limits large-scale spread.
www.forbes.com
A new report from the American Academy of Microbiology examines how attribution science is measuring the infectious disease burden caused by climate change.
