Recently, however, a group of scientists pushed this neglected topic into the spotlight. They published a paper on parasite extinction, which attracted a lot of attention from the internet and a lot of reports from mainstream media. This article was written by graduate students and research partners at the University of California, Berkeley. After years of in-depth research on museum collections and other databases, the author completed this research. This study puts forward some worrying early warnings and analyzes the unexpected huge consequences of human activities on the earth's ecosystem. Climate change poses a great threat to the destruction of parasitic species around the world, and may also adversely affect the survival of wild animals and human health.
After analyzing the data of more than 457 species of parasites, the author said, "According to the conservative model, only from the factor of habitat loss caused by climate change, 5% to 10% of these species may become extinct in 2070." If the host species of parasites are also extinct due to climate change and other human interference factors, a large number of deaths of this parasite may be aggravated. In fact, in the worst case, as many as one-third of parasitic species may become extinct.
This study shows that the extinction of parasites may have a complex cascade effect. Parasites such as ticks, mites, tapeworms, fleas and trematodes play an important role in many food webs, which can regulate the immune system of host animals and may even help prevent the emergence and spread of some pathogens.
Colin? Colin Carlson said, "Parasites make a great contribution to the ecosystem. They account for 80% of the food network chain in the ecosystem, and they account for the vast majority of interacting species, which will also have a huge impact on the host population. " He is the main author of this paper and a doctoral student at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests are environmental science, policy and management.