Infectious diseases take an enormous toll on humans, wildlife, domestic animals, and both cultivated and native plants worldwide. Often outbreaks are followed by poorly contained spread with devastating consequences. Some have argued that the poor record of corrective actions in the case of some human, animal, and plant diseases arises from the ecological complexity involved in the evolution, transmission, and maintenance of these pathogens in nature. This grant will help support an intensive 3-day Cary Conference devoted to conceptually unifying and expanding an understanding of the ecology of infectious disease. Because community and ecosystem ecology embrace key elements of infectious disease, the conference should facilitate rapid progress in anticipating and managing the complex diseases of humans, animals, and plants. The conference will be unique in three major ways. First, it will focus on the interactions between disease and both multi-species communities and ecosystems. Second, it will explore the effects of disease on ecosystems, the effects of ecosystems on disease, and the potential for feedbacks. Third, it will use ecology to provide a language of translation among specialties. It is anticipated that specialists in controlling and preventing human diseases can benefit enormously from the concepts and techniques employed by specialists engaged in controlling animal and plant diseases, and vice versa.
One Broader Impact from the conference is a more aggressive track toward defining the role of ecology and its practitioners in protecting health of humans, other animals, and phyto-resources including crops and forests. A second anticipated impact of the conference is in providing resources for the training of a new generation of ecologists interested in infectious disease.
