RYAN – Chapter 3: Disease Ecology
Dr. Ryan’s chapter was published in COVID-19 and Similar Futures: Pandemic Geographies
Gavin J. Andrews, Valorie A. Crooks, Jamie R. Pearce, Jane P. Messina
ABSTRACT: Disease ecology combines methods from quantitative ecological modeling, such as those used to explore population dynamics, evolutionary processes, and systems thinking, with quantified measures of transmission and infectious processes from epidemiology, and the ecological and environmental context that gives rise to the emergence and spread of pathogens. In the context of COVID-19, compartmental models of infection moving through populations underpinned many models used to make decisions about how to manage and control the epidemic. On the ecological side, studies of how zoonotic emergence occurs—and the wealth of knowledge of ecological conditions for emergence and outbreak and the many remaining gaps in that knowledge—were thrust into the limelight by COVID-19. This chapter lays out the framework of foundational compartmental modeling approaches at the core of disease ecology, describes the ecological context for zoonotic emergence, and reflects on how these are relevant for COVID-19 and future outbreaks.
The book is available through Springer and Amazon.
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-70179-6