Study on the effects of rainforest clearing on mosquitoes and the viruses they carry
How are environmental changes, loss of biodiversity, and the spread of pathogens connected? The answer is a puzzle. Researchers from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin have now described one piece of that puzzle in the journal eLife,* showing that the destruction of tropical rainforests harms the diversity of mosquito species. At the same time, more resilient species of mosquitoes become more prevalent – which also means the viruses they carry are more abundant. If there are many individuals of a given species, those viruses can spread quickly.