Landscape Ecol (2012) 27:1383–1384 DOI 10.1007/s10980-012-9768-6

BOOK REVIEW

Lyme disease: a quintessential connection between ecosystems and human Health R. S. Ostfeld: Lyme disease, the ecology of a complex system. Oxford University Press, New York, NY, USA, 2011, 216 pp, Hardcover, US$39.95, ISBN 978-0-19-538812-1 Michael C. Wimberly

Received: 14 May 2012 / Accepted: 4 June 2012 / Published online: 17 June 2012 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012

The topic of emerging infectious diseases, including novel pathogens as well as those that have reemerged or spread into new geographic areas, is a subject of growing interest in the fields of disease ecology and public health. Many of these emerging diseases have strong ecological underpinnings because of their dependence upon arthropod vectors for transmission and zoonotic hosts as reservoirs. As a result, disease emergence is often affected by human-caused changes in climate and habitat that alter the ecologies of vector and host species, and the field of landscape ecology has the potential to make a significant contribution in the quest for new approaches to understanding and preventing these diseases. Lyme disease is a tick-borne disease that is caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, vectored by the black-legged tick Ixodes scapularis, and dependent upon a variety of zoonotic reservoir hosts. It is arguably the most important vector-borne disease in North America and has emerged conspicuously over the past several decades. In the United States, cases have increased from less than 1,000 per year in the early 1980s to more than 30,000 confirmed and probable cases in 2010. In his book entitled Lyme Disease, the Ecology of a Complex System, Richard

M. C. Wimberly (&) Geographic Information Science Center of Excellence, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007, USA e-mail: [email protected]

Ostfeld provides an ecologist’s perspective on the phenomenon of Lyme disease. This book delivers a unique scientific narrative that highlights several ongoing scientific controversies about Lyme disease ecology and is grounded in the author’s own extensive research on this topic. The book starts with a brief introduction to the history of Lyme disease and the public health controversies that surround this insidious ailment. The next several chapters are then devoted to exploring and deconstructing several prevailing hypotheses about the ecological determinants of Lyme disease risk. These include the role of the white-tailed deer as a keystone host necessary for maintaining high tick densities, the importance of the white-footed mouse as the primary reservoir host species involved in Borrelia burgdorferi transmission, and the influences of weather and microhabitats on tick populations. Although there is some evidence to support each of these hypotheses, Ostfeld highlights the many contradictory results in the scientific literature which suggest that a more sophisticated framework is necessary for understanding the complex ecology of Lyme disease. In the second half of the book, Ostfeld focuses on the presentation and synthesis of the results from his own research group emphasizing the importance of biodiversity and ecosystem function for understanding the ecology of complex zoonoses such as Lyme disease. Two key themes in this section of the book are the cascading effects of mast years through ecological food webs and how the biology and behavior of

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different species influences their roles in the enzootic cycle. A central focus of this section is the concept of the dilution effect, through which diverse ecological communities are hypothesized to reduce disease transmission via multiple mechanisms. The final chapters extend and generalize these ideas by reviewing the evidence for dilution effects in a variety of other disease systems and discussing the potential for developing novel biocontrol strategies for Lyme disease. Overall, this book offers a refreshing alternative to the edited volumes that are so prevalent in the world of scientific publishing. The book is primarily a review and synthesis of previously published scientific research, but also blends in personal anecdotes, analogies, and a variety of other expository techniques. The result is an entertaining yet cohesive account that I found very enjoyable to read. However, a limitation of this type of single-author text is that only one perspective is presented, and the author openly states in the preface that others in the field do not necessarily agree with his interpretations of the evidence. Of course, readers can always delve into the underlying scientific evidence to develop their own opinions, and the book’s extensive references provide a valuable gateway into the disease ecology literature. For landscape ecologists, the book contains one particularly relevant section that highlights the influences of habitat fragmentation on disease risk via effects on biodiversity. However, some might be disappointed that most of the research presented is not explicitly spatial. There is a section on Lyme disease

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mapping, but it mostly emphasizes the weaknesses of past efforts at predicting the geographic range of Lyme disease based on remote sensing and climatic variables, particularly the lack of a strong ecological justification for the underlying correlations. I make these points not to be critical, but to emphasize that there are still enormous opportunities for landscape ecology to contribute to the understanding of Lyme disease and other infectious diseases by further exploring the underlying spatial mechanisms that link biophysical patterns with the process of disease transmission. In conclusion, I strongly recommend Lyme Disease, the Ecology of a Complex System to landscape ecologists who are interested in learning more about disease ecology and the linkages between ecology and public health. The focus of the book is clearly on Lyme disease, but the broader ecological concepts are also relevant to a variety of other vector-borne and zoonotic diseases. Although it is not a textbook, I believe that it could be used effectively in both undergraduate and graduate courses because it addresses interesting scientific debates that can serve as catalyst for classroom discussion. I imagine that it could provide the basis for several weeks of reading and discussion in a seminar-type course or be used as a supplementary reading in a course focused on disease ecology. In the future, I hope that more scientists will write focused, engaging, and concise books like this one addressing a variety of other important topics relevant to the field of landscape ecology.