Ecosystem Services Charting a Path to Sustainability: Interdisciplinary Research Team Summaries (2012) / Chapter Skim
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IDR Team Summary 1: How do ecosystem services affect infectious and chronic diseases?
IDR Team Summary 1: How do ecosystem services affect infectious and chronic diseases?
Pages 7-14
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From page 7... ...
. For example, biodiversity may have implications for infectious disease transmission and for the availability of biopharmaceuticals; air quality affects mortality and morbidity from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases; wetlands affect the availability and quality of drinking water; wildlands can provide environments for disease vectors; climate can affect food production, the transmission of infectious diseases as well as mortality and morbidity from chronic diseases; and natural disasters can affect both physical and mental health in profound way.
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From page 8... ...
For example, ecosystem services that are directly related to human health include food production, water supply and quality, air quality, as well as other aspects of the human-environment interface related to the ways in which human settlements are built, organized, and linked to their natural environments. The challenge is to understand the overall impact of ecosystems on infectious and chronic diseases broadly defined, as well as the consequences of changes in ecosystems -- not only on overall rates of morbidity, but also on health inequalities by place and person.
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From page 9... ...
It is generally accepted, for example, that the degradation of ecosystems facilitates the emergence of infectious diseases. If we can better understand how ecosystem services are linked to specific diseases, then we can also predict how human alteration of the environment might affect human health.
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From page 10... ...
For example, it may be more productive to focus improvement efforts on air quality to reduce asthma rather than spending time and money on a disease with a more tenuous connection to ecosystem services that may be better addressed in other ways. The other conclusion was that infectious diseases are more obviously linked to ecosystem services than chronic diseases.
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From page 11... ...
Within the chronic disease category, respiratory illness related to particulates are considered more strongly linked to ecosystem services, followed by nutritional illnesses, mental health, immune disorders, cardiovascular disease, cancers and reproductive disorders. Meshing models At first, the team attempted to create its own basic model for assessing the relationships between human-led change in the environment, ecosystem
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From page 12... ...
A review of the existing literature should reveal specific diseases that can be used as cases demonstrating strong links to ecosystem services. A basic research question that would need to be answered using the resulting framework is "how do changes in the ecosystem affect ecosystems services, and subsequently human health?
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From page 13... ...
13 IDR TEAM SUMMARY 1 to improve human health through ecosystem management. Through advertisements, podcasts, journals and other avenues, experts in every related discipline need to be made aware of the health component of ecosystem services and the possibility of working together to improve human health worldwide.
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