COVID-19: Ecology, Environments and Sustainability
Our society continues to cope with the reality of COVID-19. To improve human health while protecting wildlife and the environment, swift actions that promote the 3Es (early detection, early warning, early eradication) would be most effective in avoiding similar pandemics in the future. Such unusual times necessitate exceptional measures, funding, and collaboration at a global scale. Ultimately, synchronized coordination in monitoring and prevention measures across local-regional-global governments and communities offers the most promise despite existing political and social challenges.
Around the globe, human behavior and ecosystem health have been extensively and sometimes severely affected by the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. Scientists at the Southern Research Station recently focused on the diverse research opportunities in disease ecology and ecosystem sustainability related to the drastically reduced human activities during (intermittent) COVID-19 related lockdowns. Most efforts to study the complex and uneven effects of the pandemic so far have focused on public health and economics. Some studies have evaluated the pandemic’s influences on the environment, but often on a single aspect such as air or water pollution. Related research opportunities are relatively rare, and the needed approaches are unique in multiple aspects and mostly retrospective—examining ‘after the fact’ what has already happened. In a synthesis and review of research so far, the scientists discuss several key knowledge gaps and questions to address amid the ongoing pandemic. One conclusion is that the common knowledge accumulated from invasion biology could be effectively applied to COVID-19, and the findings could offer much-needed information for future pandemic prevention and management.
Pictured: Stages of pandemic progression and responses, from 3Es (early detection, early warning, early eradication) to post-pandemic assessment. USDA Forest Service image.
Contact: Qinfeng Guo and Danny C. Lee, Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center. qinfeng.guo@usda.gov. danny.c.lee@usda.gov
