|
Abstract:
|
The field of disease ecology focuses on environmental and ecologic impacts on the emergence and spread of disease and reflects an ongoing interdisciplinary interaction between biologists, ecologists, physicians, veterinarians, and public health scientists. Such studies quantify patterns in data from genetic sequencing of pathogens, host behaviors and interactions, and landscape habitat features This goal requires flexible statistical methods that incorporated the full range of data, modeling at a variety of scales, and allowing variable data quality and accuracy. Hierarchical models provide a framework for bridging dynamic systems with multiple levels of data. Established successes appear in the fields of climate modeling and the ecology of invasive species. The goal of this roundtable is to extend such approaches to the field of disease ecology.
|
