Host-pathogen interactions under pressure: a review and
meta-analysis of stress-mediated effects on disease dynamics
Amanda Vicente-Santos1*, Beatriz
Willink2,3,4, Kacy Nowak5, David J.
Civitello1,6, and Thomas R.
Gillespie1,5,7*
1Population Biology, Ecology, and Evolution Program,
Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
2Department of Zoology, Stockholm University,
Stockholm 106-91, Sweden
3Department of Biological Sciences, National
University of Singapore, Singapore 117558, Singapore
4School of Biology, University of Costa Rica, San José
11501-2060, Costa Rica
5Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of
Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
6 Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
30322, USA
7Department of Environmental Sciences, Emory
University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
*Correspondence: Amanda Vicente-Santos. Sutton Hall 107,
Biology Department, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA
amanda.vicente@ou.edu
Tel. +1(404) 276-9990; and
Thomas R. Gillespie. 400 Dowman Drive, Suite E510, Department of
Environmental Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
thomas.gillespie@emory.edu
Tel: +1(404) 727-7926
Running title: Stress-mediated effects on disease dynamics
Keywords : resource limitation, environmental stress, pollution,
survival, fecundity, infectivity, epidemiological models
Email addresses:amanda.vicente@ou.edu,
beatriz.willink@zoologi.su.se,
kkacy.nnowak@gmail.com,
david.james.civitello@emory.edu,
thomas.gillespie@emory.edu
Statement of authorship: AVS conceived the study. AVS, BW, DJC,
and TRG designed the project and plans for data collection. AVS, BW, and
KN collected data. AVS, BW, KN, and DJC analyzed the data. AVS, BW, and
DJC designed figures and tables with inputs from all authors. AVS and
DJC conceived and created the models. AVS, BW, and TRG drafted the
manuscript. All authors revised and edited the manuscript for
intellectual content.
Data accessibility statement: Data is available from the Dryad
Digital Repository (doi:10.5061/dryad.zw3r228cd).
Word number of abstract (198) ; word number of main text(7463) ; word number in text box 1 (197) ; word number
in text box 2 (134) ; number of references (143) ;
number of figures (5) ; number of tables (0) ; number of
text boxes (2)
Abstract: Human activities have increased the intensity and
frequency of natural stressors and created novel stressors, altering
host-pathogen interactions, and changing the risk of emerging infectious
diseases. Despite the ubiquity of such anthropogenic impacts, predicting
the directionality of outcomes has proven challenging. Here, we conduct
a review and meta-analysis to determine the primary mechanisms through
which stressors affect host-pathogen interactions and to evaluate the
impacts stress has on host fitness (survival and fecundity) and pathogen
infectivity (prevalence and intensity). We assessed 891 effect sizes
from 71 host species (representing seven taxonomic groups) and 78
parasite taxa from 98 studies. We found that infected and uninfected
hosts had similar sensitivity to stressors and that responses varied
according to stressor type. Specifically, limited resources compromised
host fecundity and decreased pathogen intensity, while abiotic
environmental stressors (e.g., temperature and salinity) decreased host
survivorship and increased pathogen intensity, and pollution increased
mortality but decreased pathogen prevalence. We then used our
meta-analysis results to develop Susceptible-Infected theoretical models
to illustrate scenarios where infection rates are expected to increase
or decrease in response to resource limitation or environmental stress
gradients. Our results carry implications for conservation and disease
emergence and reveal areas for future work.