Integrating climate change, biological invasions, and infectious wildlife diseases

David W. Thieltges; David Bruce Conn; Ross N. Cuthbert; Alison M. Dunn; E. Rosa Jolma; M. Camille Hopkins; Volodimir Sarabeev; Sander Smolders; Carol A. Stepien; K. Mathias Wegner; Patrick M. Kočovský

doi:10.1002/fee.2849

Integrating climate change, biological invasions, and infectious wildlife diseases

David W. Thieltges^*, David Bruce Conn, Ross N. Cuthbert, Alison M. Dunn, E. Rosa Jolma, M. Camille Hopkins, Volodimir Sarabeev, Sander Smolders, Carol A. Stepien, K. Mathias Wegner, Patrick M. Kočovský

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

Abstract

Climate change is likely to affect infectious diseases that are facilitated by biological invasions, with repercussions for wildlife conservation and zoonotic risks. Current invasion management and policy are underprepared for the future risks associated with such invasion-related wildlife diseases. By considering evidence from bioclimatology, invasion biology, and disease research, we illustrate how climate change is anticipated to affect disease agents (parasites and pathogens), hosts, and vectors across the different stages of invasions. We highlight the opportunity to integrate these disciplines to identify the effects of climate change on invasion-related wildlife diseases. In addition, shifting to a proactive stance in implementing management and policy, such as by incorporating climate-change effects either into preventative and mitigation measures for biosecurity or with rapid response protocols to limit disease spread and impacts, could help to combat future ecological, economic, and human health risks stemming from invasion-related wildlife diseases.

Original language	English
Article number	e2849
Journal	Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2849
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 23 Apr 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s). Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Ecological Society of America. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.

Funding

This paper developed from presentations at the Research at the Interface of Climate Change, Aquatic Invasive Species, and Disease symposium at the 2022 International Conference on Aquatic Invasive Species in Oostende, Belgium. We thank C Brown-Lima for participation in the symposium and J English for early discussions on development of this manuscript. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US Government. VS was funded by the European Union's NextGenerationEU through the Recovery and Resilience Plan for Slovakia (project #09I03-03-V01-00017); RNC was funded through the Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship (ECF-2021-001); AMD was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

Funders	Funder number
European Union's NextGenerationEU through the Recovery and Resilience Plan for Slovakia	09I03-03-V01-00017
Leverhulme Trust	ECF-2021-001
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1002/fee.2849Licence: CC BY

Cite this

Thieltges, D. W., Conn, D. B., Cuthbert, R. N., Dunn, A. M., Jolma, E. R., Hopkins, M. C., Sarabeev, V., Smolders, S., Stepien, C. A., Wegner, K. M., & Kočovský, P. M. (2025). Integrating climate change, biological invasions, and infectious wildlife diseases. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, Article e2849. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2849

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Integrating climate change, biological invasions, and infectious wildlife diseases

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

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