Pandemics and habitat loss: what is the link?

Abstract

Our planet hosts a vast biological diversity capable of creating complex ecosystems, including individuals, populations and close relationships. Although biological diversity evolves over long periods, it is certain that anthropogenic pressures have effects in the short term. The effects are quantifiable on the distribution and abundance of living species and on the ecosystem stability. A large number of scientific works correlates pandemic onsets with the habitat loss and the destruction of ecosystems by humans. Human pressure on our planet is gradually leading to environmental degradation, associated with climate change and social inequalities. Increasing pollution, deforestation, urbanization and greenhouse gas emissions have severely tested the resilience of our planet. Many studies have already shown that the current COVID-19 pandemic is attributable to the spillover, that is the passage of a virus from one species to another, to the concomitant ability of the virus to replicate within the new host, and finally to the ability of the virus to pass from one new host to another. It is our opinion and of many other scientists that it is necessary to consider the habitat states and their biodiversity as factors that influence the probability of having a spillover. We can generally say that in order to lower the probability of having a spillover it is desirable to conduct policies for habitat conservation and the maintenance of local biodiversity

Keywords

• spillover
• pandemic
• biodiversity
• habitat
• pollution
• climate change
• anthropogenic pressure
• habitat loss