Quantifying the mechanistic basis for disease-regulation ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes

• Grant number: 14/11676-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: November 01, 2014
• End date: August 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Applied Ecology
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Jean Paul Walter Metzger
• Grantee: Elizabeth Stevens Nichols
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/23457-6 - Interface project: relationships among landscape structure, ecological processes, biodiversity and ecosystem services, AP.BTA.TEM

Abstract

Biotic interactions between parasitic and free-living taxa are fundamental to a range of ecosystem processes, including the mediation of parasitic disease transmission between species in a community. When and where parasitic diseases directly impact humans and domestic animals, the reduction of disease transmission risk by non-parasitic species can be considered a health-related ecosystem service. Yet how environmental change affects the biotic interactions between free-living and parasitic biodiversity, and therefore influence disease transmission risk, remains poorly understood. The proposed project seeks to quantify how key drivers of global environmental change (e.g. land use change) influence the interactions between host and parasitic diversity, and therefore the provision of disease-regulation ecosystem services, using a model system composed of dung beetles and the fecal helminths of domestic mammals with which they interact. Gastrointestinal parasites (e.g. helminths) carry a tremendous global disease burden to both domestic and wild animals and represent the most common infectious agents of humans in developing countries. Preliminary evidence suggests that dung beetles species may both reduce the transmission rates of helminths with direct transmission (DT) and maintain or amplify the transmission of helminths with indirect transmission (IT) helminths. As dung beetles are highly sensitive to losses of native habitat, environmental changes that affect the diversity and density of beetles are expected to influence both positive and negative dung beetle-helminth interactions. The proposed project aims to quantify these positive and negative influences of beetle communities on helminth transmission, and estimate how disease regulation services may respond to forest cover loss. We propose to quantify (1) the mechanisms by which communities of dung beetles influence the transmission of both DT and IT helminth, and (2) how beetle communities respond to native habitat loss. This project will complement the FAPESP Thematic Project 'Interface Project: relationships among landscape structure, ecological proceses, biodiversity and ecosystem services (13/23457-6), taking advantage of the same study design and sites, and supplying data to better understand the central applied question of how native habitat availability influences the provision of ecosystem services. With these data, we can begin to address major knowledge gaps related to the transmission and regulation of economically important parasitic disease in the tropics, and the effects of habitat loss on key health-related ecosystem services. (AU)

Scientific publications

(11)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

ROSLIN, TOMAS; HARDWICK, BESS; NOVOTNY, VOJTECH; PETRY, WILLIAM K.; ANDREW, NIGEL R.; ASMUS, ASHLEY; BARRIO, ISABEL C.; BASSET, YVES; BOESING, ANDREA LARISSA; BONEBRAKE, TIMOTHY C.; et al. Higher predation risk for insect prey at low latitudes and elevations. Science, v. 356, n. 6339, SI, p. 742-744, MAY 19 2017. (13/23457-6, 14/11676-8)

RUGGIERO, P. G. C.; PFAFF, A.; PEREDA, P.; NICHOLS, E.; METZGER, J. P.. The Brazilian intergovernmental fiscal transfer for conservation: A successful but self-limiting incentive program. ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS, v. 191, JAN 2022. (14/11676-8, 15/16587-6, 13/23457-6, 17/20245-9)

RUGGIERO, PATRICIA G. C.; PFAFF, ALEXANDER; NICHOLS, ELIZABETH; ROSA, MARCOS; METZGER, JEAN PAUL. Election cycles affect deforestation within Brazil's Atlantic Forest. CONSERVATION LETTERS, v. 14, n. 5, SEP 2021. (17/20245-9, 15/16587-6, 14/11676-8, 13/23457-6)

BOESING, ANDREA LARISSA; NICHOLS, ELIZABETH; METZGER, JEAN PAUL. Biodiversity extinction thresholds are modulated by matrix type. ECOGRAPHY, v. 41, n. 9, p. 1520-1533, NOV 2018. (13/12777-0, 13/23457-6, 14/11676-8)

RUGGIERO, PATRICIA G. C.; METZGER, JEAN PAUL; TAMBOSI, LEANDRO REVERBERI; NICHOLS, ELIZABETH. Payment for ecosystem services programs in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest: Effective but not enough. LAND USE POLICY, v. 82, p. 283-291, MAR 2019. (14/11676-8, 15/16587-6, 13/23457-6)

BOESING, ANDREA L.; NICHOLS, ELIZABETH; METZGER, JEAN P.. Effects of landscape structure on avian-mediated insect pest control services: a review. LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY, v. 32, n. 5, p. 931-944, MAY 2017. (13/12777-0, 13/23457-6, 14/11676-8)

RIBEIRO, FERNANDO S.; NICHOLS, ELIZABETH; MORATO, RONALDO G.; METZGER, JEAN PAUL; PARDINI, RENATA. Disturbance or propagule pressure? Unravelling the drivers and mapping the intensity of invasion of free-ranging dogs across the Atlantic forest hotspot. DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS, v. 25, n. 2, p. 191-204, FEB 2019. (13/23457-6, 14/11676-8)

BARRETO, JULIA RODRIGUES; PARDINI, RENATA; METZGER, JEAN PAUL; SILVA, FERNANDO AUGUSTO BARBOSA; NICHOLS, ELIZABETH S.. When forest loss leads to biodiversity gain: Insights from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Biological Conservation, v. 279, p. 10-pg., 2023-03-01. (13/23457-6, 14/11676-8)

RUGGIERO, PATRICIA G. C.; PFAFF, ALEXANDER; NICHOLS, ELIZABETH; ROSA, MARCOS; METZGER, JEAN PAUL. Election cycles affect deforestation within Brazil's Atlantic Forest. CONSERVATION LETTERS, JUN 2021. (15/16587-6, 17/20245-9, 13/23457-6, 14/11676-8)

BOESING, ANDREA LARISSA; NICHOLS, ELIZABETH; METZGER, JEAN PAUL. Land use type, forest cover and forest edges modulate avian cross-habitat spillover. JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, v. 55, n. 3, p. 1252-1264, MAY 2018. (13/23457-6, 14/11676-8, 13/12777-0)

ROSLIN, TOMAS; HARDWICK, BESS; NOVOTNY, VOJTECH; PETRY, WILLIAM K.; ANDREW, NIGEL R.; ASMUS, ASHLEY; BARRIO, ISABEL C.; BASSET, YVES; BOESING, ANDREA LARISSA; BONEBRAKE, TIMOTHY C.; et al. Higher predation risk for insect prey at low latitudes and elevations. Science, v. 356, n. 6339, p. 3-pg., 2017-05-19. (13/23457-6, 14/11676-8)