ReviewEcology letters2021
Dilution effects in disease ecology.
Review in Ecology letters, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 62 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
62 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Meta-analysis shows that plant mixtures reduce pathogens and invertebrate herbivores and increase plant productivity.Nature communications · 2026Pooled it
- Environmental and ecological factors affecting tick infestation in wild birds of the Americas.Parasitology research · 2024Pooled it
- Invasive plasmids as ecosystem engineers-from mechanism to application.Essays in biochemistry · 2026Review
- Beyond the silos: A global evidence synthesis of biodiversity, water, food, health and climate nexus interactions.iScience · 2026Review
- Longitudinal study of a rodent invasion reveals shifts in host pathogen interactions.PLoS pathogens · 2026Article
- Differential Effects of Long-Term Fertilization and Plant Species Richness on Soil Fungi and Protists.Global change biology · 2026Article
- Quantifying the relative importance of disease-suppressive mechanisms in species mixtures: a case study of late blight in strip-intercropped potato.Journal of experimental botany · 2026Article
- Competent Non-Native Alternative Host Reduces Infection Success in a Generalist Parasite.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Article
- Tick-borne pathogens in Ixodes ricinus (Acari: Ixodidae) and Ixodes inopinatus × I. ricinus hybrids in Central Europe: no link to bird diversity or abundance.Journal of medical entomology · 2026Article
- Drivers of Viral Prevalence in Landscape-Scale Pollinator Networks Across Europe: Honey Bee Viral Density, Niche Overlap With This Reservoir Host and Network Architecture.Ecology letters · 2026Article
- Amphibian Strategies Against Attacks by Flies: Host-Specificity and Threats.Ecology and evolution · 2026Review
- Responses of Soil Microbial Communities and Anthracnose Dynamics to Different Planting Patterns inMicroorganisms · 2025Article
- Biodiversity conservation depends on the expansion of taxonomy and systematics research.Journal of mammalogy · 2025Article
- Parasitiformes (ticks) and Acariformes (mites) vectors and their vertebrate host diversity: A global scoping review.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2025Review
- Changes in biodiversity drive trypanosome infections of wildlife in Panama.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2025Article
- Hantavirus infections and small mammal diversity in Chile: No differences between protected and unprotected areas highlight the need for public health strategies.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2025Article
- Beyond the laboratory: the bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus) as a novel model organism in biological research.Frontiers in zoology · 2025Review
- Exploring Metrics of Biological Diversity to Better Predict and Respond to Emerging Diseases.Integrative and comparative biology · 2025Review
- Advancing Theory Underlying Diversity-Disease Relationships: Competence in the Context of Life History, Demography, and Disease.Integrative and comparative biology · 2025Article
2 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
For decades, people have reduced the transmission of pathogens by adding low-quality hosts to managed environments like agricultural fields. More recently, there has been interest in whether similar 'dilution effects' occur in natural disease systems, and whether these effects are eroded as diversity declines. For some pathogens of plants, humans and other animals, the highest-quality hosts persist when diversity is lost, so that high-quality hosts dominate low-diversity communities, resulting in greater pathogen transmission. Meta-analyses reveal that these natural dilution effects are common. However, studying them remains challenging due to limitations on the ability of researchers to manipulate many disease systems experimentally, difficulties of acquiring data on host quality and confusion about what should and should not be considered a dilution effect. Because dilution effects are widely used in managed disease systems and have been documented in a variety of natural disease systems, their existence should not be considered controversial. Important questions remain about how frequently they occur and under what conditions to expect them. There is also ongoing confusion about their relationships to both pathogen spillover and general biogeographical correlations between diversity and disease, which has resulted in an inconsistent and confusing literature. Progress will require rigorous and creative research.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.