New analysis pokes holes in widely accepted theory that
connects biodiversity abundance with a reduced disease risk for humans.
More than three quarters of new, emerging or re-emerging
human diseases are caused by pathogens from animals, according to the World
Health Organization.
But a widely accepted theory of risk reduction for these
pathogens – one of the most important ideas in disease ecology – is likely
wrong, according to a new study co-authored by Stanford Woods Institute for the
Environment Senior Fellow James Holland Jones and former Woods-affiliated
ecologist Dan Salkeld.