Dr. Daniel (Dan) Brooks, a parasitologist at the University of Toronto, says the decline of global biodiversity is linked to the emergence of new human and wildlife diseases such as West Nile Virus and avian flu.

"The biodiversity crisis is not just about extinctions," says Dr. Brooks, whose pioneering parasite systematics research is supported by Science and Engineering Research Canada (NSERC). "In the past, when there have been episodes of major climate change or mass extinction, and species have moved out of their areas of origin into other areas, there have been emerging diseases. Parasites have moved into new areas and they've jumped ship into new hosts."

He will present his latest findings on February 21 as part of a panel discussion on environmental systematics at the 2005 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington D.C.

Dr. Brooks has spent much of the past decade slogging through the dense jungles of Costa Rica tracking down and collecting parasites. Since 1996, he has coordinated the parasite Taxonomic Working Group for the All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI), an international scientific and economic initiative to help developing countries preserve the world's biodiversity.

In the Guanacaste Conservation Area of northwest Costa Rica, a 1,000 square km (400 square mile) United Nations World Heritage Site that features habitats ranging from rain forests to savannas, the ATBI is documenting an estimated 250,000 species of plants and animals, including everything from viruses to jaguars.

For his part, Dr. Brooks has looked for parasites in more than 4,000 individuals from species ranging from frogs to de
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Contact: Dr. Daniel Brooks
dbrooks@zoo.utoronto.ca
416-978-3139
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
21-Feb-2005