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Investing in stricter biodiversity conservation and wildlife protection to reduce the number of emerging diseases and, consequently, the risk of pandemics such as coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), must integrate a social-ecological perspective. Biodiversity conservation, in order to be effective as disease prevention, requires consideration of people's needs, knowledge and institutions within their locally specific contexts. To meet this goal, future biodiversity research and conservation policy should apply six social-ecological principles for shaping future practices of co-existence of societies and nature.
The COVID-19 pandemic, presumably originating in a spillover event from natural wildlife reservoirs into the human population, sets a new benchmark for the indirect cost of biodiversity exploitation. To reverse the trend of increasing pandemic risk, biodiversity conservation and wildlife protection must be strengthened globally. In this paper, we argue that such preventive measures explicitly need to employ a social-ecological approach. In particular, attention must be paid to the societal relations to nature to avoid falling for simplistic solutions that neglect regional and local particularities of both, biodiversity and local communities. We emphasize the importance of avoiding a Western-biased view and acknowledging the factors and causations of infectious disease emergence in industrialized countries. To reduce the emergence of zoonotic and vector-borne diseases in their specific contexts, we propose applying a social-ecological systems approach by integrating plural local knowledge and values, established practices, formal and informal institutions, as well as technology. We further introduce six social-ecological principles for shaping transformations in the Anthropocene to maintain and build more resilient and sustainable communities. By operationalizing these inter- and transdisciplinary principles, biodiversity conservation can be effectively implemented as infectious disease prevention.
A social-ecological approach to biodiversity conservation can pave the way for an effective and socially just reduction of future pandemic risks.
Early in this century it was shown that aging is accompanied by a decrease in intranasal chemosensory sensitivity to camphor (Vaschide, 1904). Numerous studies have confirmed such findings for various odorants (Venstrom and Amoore, 1968; Schiffman, Moss, and Erickson, 1976; Stevens and Cain, 1987). Others have reported decreased ability to identify odorants with increasing age (Doty et al., 1984; Wood and Harkins, 1987; Cain and Gent, 1991), as well as greater tendencies for olfactory adaptation and slower recovery of threshold sensitivity (Stevens et al., 1989). In contrast, few investigators have reported stable olfactory function over a life span (e.g., Rovee, Cohen, and Shlapack, 1975).
What Is the Anatomical Substrate for Age-related Loss of Chemosensory Function?
The olfactory system is part of a living organism that undergoes significant changes related to aging. Both peripheral sensory and central processing units are affected in that process. In the following we shall try to summarize some of those effects concerning the aging olfactory epithelium, as well as changes in the central nervous system that may contribute to the deterioration of the aging sense of smell.
Central Nervous System and Olfactory Bulb
Olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) may be subject to alterations similar to those seen in neurons in the aging brain. Alterations in the aging central nervous system (CNS) include, for example, deficits in the regulation of intracellular calcium levels, increased leakage of synaptic transmitters, and changes in neuronal arborization (Smith, 1988).
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