Featured Publications
Climate change increases cross-species viral transmission risk
Carlson C, Albery G, Merow C, Trisos C, Zipfel C, Eskew E, Olival K, Ross N, Bansal S. Climate change increases cross-species viral transmission risk. Nature 2022, 607: 555-562. PMID: 35483403, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04788-w.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsViral sharingRange shiftsRange shifts of speciesHuman population densityGeographic range shiftsUnique dispersal abilityLand-use scenariosShifts of speciesGlobal environmental changeGeographically isolated speciesBiodiversity surveysBiodiversity hotspotHolding warmingMammal speciesDispersal abilityLand-useLand usePotential hotspotsClimate-changePopulation densityCross-species transmissionPhylogeographic modelsEnvironmental changesEcological transitionVirus species
2022
Urban-adapted mammal species have more known pathogens
Albery G, Carlson C, Cohen L, Eskew E, Gibb R, Ryan S, Sweeny A, Becker D. Urban-adapted mammal species have more known pathogens. Nature Ecology & Evolution 2022, 6: 794-801. PMID: 35501480, DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01723-0.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsParasite richnessIncreased zoonotic disease riskUrban-adapted speciesWildlife disease dynamicsZoonotic disease riskSampling biasUrban mammalsMammal speciesDocumented parasitismFrequent contact with humansAnthropogenic changesGeographic predictorsParasite discoveryRichnessUrban animalsHost-parasite combinationsInvestigated speciesContact with humansDisease dynamicsZoonotic parasitesUrban environmentSpeciesMounting concernMammalsParasitesAssessing the risk of human‐to‐wildlife pathogen transmission for conservation and public health
Fagre A, Cohen L, Eskew E, Farrell M, Glennon E, Joseph M, Frank H, Ryan S, Carlson C, Albery G. Assessing the risk of human‐to‐wildlife pathogen transmission for conservation and public health. Ecology Letters 2022, 25: 1534-1549. PMID: 35318793, PMCID: PMC9313783, DOI: 10.1111/ele.14003.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsNon-human primatesPathogen transmissionThreatened animalsThreaten conservationHuman healthRisk assessmentHuman pathogensPrimatesIncreasing concernSampling biasPublic healthConservationTransmission of pathogensDocumented examplesPathogensEvidence of sampling biasTransmission eventsHuman parasitesWildlifeMammal virus diversity estimates are unstable due to accelerating discovery effort
Gibb R, Albery G, Mollentze N, Eskew E, Brierley L, Ryan S, Seifert S, Carlson C. Mammal virus diversity estimates are unstable due to accelerating discovery effort. Biology Letters 2022, 18: 20210427. PMID: 34982955, PMCID: PMC8727147, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2021.0427.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsViral richnessHost speciesReliability of ecological inferenceGeographic sampling biasEvidence of declineViral diversityHost-virus associationsRearrangement of speciesSampling effortVirus discovery ratesEcological inferenceDiscovery effortsMammal hostsWild mammalsDiversity estimatesSampled hostsVirus diversityShort-term changesRichnessSampling biasSpeciesAssociation dataDiscovery rateDiversityCompare inferences
2019
Global estimates of mammalian viral diversity accounting for host sharing
Carlson C, Zipfel C, Garnier R, Bansal S. Global estimates of mammalian viral diversity accounting for host sharing. Nature Ecology & Evolution 2019, 3: 1070-1075. PMID: 31182813, DOI: 10.1038/s41559-019-0910-6.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsVirus speciesHost sharingViral diversitySpecies interaction networksEcological network theorySurveillance of pathogensMacroecological approachVirus diversityInteraction networkEstimate biodiversityAssociation dataSpeciesDiversityHostMammalsHuman healthPandemic potentialVirusGlobal estimatesPathogensNon-linear relationshipBiodiversityPresent estimates