The portfolio effect cushions mosquito populations and malaria transmission against vector control interventions

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Date
2018-08-10
Authors
Killeen, Gerry F.
Reed, Thomas E.
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BioMed Central
Published Version
10.1186/s12936-018-2441-z
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Abstract
Portfolio effects were first described as a basis for mitigating against financial risk by diversifying investments. Distributing investment across several different assets can stabilize returns and reduce risks by statistical averaging of individual asset dynamics that often correlate weakly or negatively with each other. The same simple probability theory is equally applicable to complex ecosystems, in which biological and environmental diversity stabilizes ecosystems against natural and human-mediated perturbations. Given the fundamental limitations to how well the full complexity of ecosystem dynamics can be understood or anticipated, the portfolio effect concept provides a simple framework for more critical data interpretation and pro-active conservation management. Applied to conservation ecology purposes, the portfolio effect concept informs management strategies emphasizing identification and maintenance of key ecological processes that generate complexity, diversity and resilience against inevitable, often unpredictable perturbations.
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Keywords
Malaria , Plasmodium , Anopheles , Mosquito , Vector control , Elimination , Ecology
Citation
Killeen, G.F. and Reed, T.E., 2018. The portfolio effect cushions mosquito populations and malaria transmission against vector control interventions. Malaria journal, 17, 291, (7 pp) . doi:10.1186/s12936-018-2441-z
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https://malariajournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12936-018-2441-z
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https://hdl.handle.net/10468/9201
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Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences - Journal Articles
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© The Author(s) 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.