Congrats to Pieter Johnson and his lab for establishing the underlying mechanisms between increased biodiversity and disease risk
The researchers spent three years sampling 345 wetlands and recording malformations in amphibians— which included missing, misshapen or extra sets of hind legs. These deformaties caused by parasitic infections, were recorded in 24,215 amphibians. The results showed that ponds with half a dozen amphibian species had a 78 percent reduction in parasite transmission compared to ponds with just one amphibian species. The research team also set up experiments in the lab and outdoors using 40 artificial ponds, each stocked with 60 amphibians and 5,000 parasites. You can view more details about this groundbreaking study . Congrats to the Johnson lab!