Diversity in disease vectors and pathogens: A climate change perspective

Abstract

introdUctionThe recognition of the global impacts of climate change has led to various studies, predictions and models about its impact on all life forms, and especially on humans and their health. while these predictions and models primarily target food and water supplies, environmental pollution and an increase in respiratory diseases, climate change may also have an impact on the occurrence and distribution of diseases, disease vectors and agents. besides the need to identify the risk factors and predict the distribution of disease vectors and pathogens, we lack a deeper understanding of climate effects on their diversity, and the indirect effects on disease severity or virulence. One of the major effects of climate change is considered to be a reduction in biodiversity. but what are the effects of climate change on the tiniest living organsms and what are its effects on the evolution of new ispecies, especially within species with high reproductive rates?darwin’s theory of evolution teaches us that when faced by adverse conditions, species that cannot adapt to the condition will die off while the fittest will survive. While the major mass extinction events in the history of the earth led to the loss of a very large proportion of biodiversity, the species that survived bounced back and many new ones emerged. So, while a species of butterfly may be facing extinction due to ecosystem change, would a bacterium in that same ecosystem be facing the same situation or would it be adapting to the changes? This begs the question of whether or not the observed climate change effects are leading to the evolution of new species, especially within species with high reproductive life cycles, a large number of which are agents and vectors of diseases