Unraveling Species Contributions to Environmental Pathogen Reservoirs

Abstract

In our study, we examined environmental reservoir dynamics of Pseudogymnoascus destructans, the fungal pathogen causing white-nose syndrome in hibernating bats. We quantified changes in pathogen shedding, infection intensity, and species abundance during pathogen invasion and establishment within sites in the Midwestern US. We evaluated these effects together through the metric of propagule pressure which allowed us to capture which bat species within the community contributed to pathogen invasion success and ultimately the maintenance of indirect transmission, which is an important driver of infection and mortality. Broadly, our results demonstrated that multiple factors of species variability scale to influence environmental reservoir dynamics within communities.

These photographs illustrate the article “Host infection and disease induced mortality modify species contributions to the environmental reservoir” by Nichole A. Laggan, Katy L. Parise, J. Paul White, Heather M. Kaarakka, Jennifer A. Redell, John E. DePue, William H. Scullon, Joseph Kath, Jeffrey T. Foster, A. Marm Kilpatrick, Kate E. Langwig, and Joseph R. Hoyt published in Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4147.