AI Summary
The destruction of tropical rainforests reduces mosquito diversity, allowing more resilient species to become prevalent and spread viruses more abundantly.
How are environmental changes, loss of biodiversity, and the spread of pathogens connected? The answer is a puzzle. Researchers have now described one piece of that puzzle, showing that the destruction of tropical rainforests harms the diversity of mosquito species. At the same time, more resilient species of mosquitoes become more prevalent — which also means the viruses they carry are more abundant. If there are many individuals of a given species, those viruses can spread quickly.