7 ms·

Layman here. Even if the impact on the food chain is zero, does it mean that there won't be other impacts? For example, on the eradication of mosquitoes, what

Layman here. Even if the impact on the food chain is zero, does it mean that there won't be other impacts? For example, on the eradication of mosquitoes, what if the disease that are currently only spread via mosquitoes mutate/evolve themselves to be airborne?

ThrustVectoring 10y ago
Evolution does not work that way. Parasites are generally happy to keep on reproducing until their host dies - there's no reason for them to stop, since the only reasoning that evolution understands is "there tends to be more things that reproduce better". Malaria reproduces better by going through human hosts and mosquito carriers than by going airborne. If going airborne helped an individual generation of malaria, malaria would already be airborne.
slapshot 10y ago
> what if the disease that are currently only spread via mosquitoes mutate/evolve themselves to be airborne? Evolution doesn't have an intent. Diseases can't "evolve themselves." Evolution happens through random mutations* and selection of the fittest. If a mutation makes a virus or bacteria or protozoan more likely to survive, then the descendants of the mutant tend to multiply more and become more common. If the mutation makes the organism less likely to survive, descendants of the mutant tend to die out over time. (In other words, no matter how hard you hope your offspring will be born with four arms, they never will be.) If anything, eliminating mosquitoes will make us SAFER from airborne zika or malaria. Why? Right now, there are tens of millions of infected mosquitoes out there right now. If airborne malaria is possible, there are tens of millions of chances for it to occur every day. And that would be such a powerful disease that it wouldn't matter that there also exists bloodborne malaria. If we eliminate tens of millions of malaria hosts, we reduce the number of chances for malaria to mutate into an airborne form. As it happens, I don't think airborne malaria is likely -- the life cycle of malaria is way too complex and depends too much on stages that are specific to mosquitoes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria But the idea is the same. * And a few other processes, such as DNA exchange, but the effect is the same for this purpose.
- imakesnowflakes 10y ago
  >Evolution doesn't have an intent. Diseases can't "evolve themselves." I know. But when you remove mosquitoes from the picture, aren't you putting selection pressure on the diseases to be airborne? >Evolution happens through random mutations* and selection of the fittest... Yes. Say a virus of a disease x that normally spreads via mosquitos, gain a mutation to be airborne. But since there are an abundance of mosquitoes, an airborne strain does not have an advantage over mosquitoes borne strain. So it dies off (because of competition) But when you eradicate the mosquitoes, or reduce their number significantly, suddenly the airborne strain has a tremendous advantage over the mosquito borne strain. Hence it can grow in numbers and eventually completely replace the mosquito borne strain... Isn't this even remotely possible?
  - slapshot 10y ago
    > aren't you putting selection pressure on the diseases to be airborne? > an airborne strain does not have an advantage over mosquitoes borne strain There are hundreds of millions of people today who don't currently have malaria, but would be at risk to get malaria if it went airborne. Airborne malaria wouldn't be competing with mosquitoborne malaria. It'd be competing with running out of people to kill. There seems to be a startup lesson here: your competition isn't legacy players. It's non-consumption.
    - imakesnowflakes 10y ago
      Sorry. I have no idea what you are talking about. Are you a biologist/ecologist or someone knowledgeable in the field?
      - jessaustin 10y ago
        Instead of asking for credentials, just think a little harder. If "airborne malaria" could possibly be a thing, it would already be a thing. Plasmodium isn't a work crew responsible for killing a given number of people every year, after which they relax for a bit, only getting really creative when they fall behind their quota. It is a reproducing species that will reproduce and thrive as much as possible. There is no intelligence guiding mutation. If flying were an option, Plasmodium would be flying. Your question is like asking, "if we rounded up all the lions in Africa and put them in pens, would they evolve wings to escape?" Yes it's that silly.

ThrustVectoring 10y ago

Evolution does not work that way. Parasites are generally happy to keep on reproducing until their host dies - there's no reason for them to stop, since the only reasoning that evolution understands is "there tends to be more things that reproduce better". Malaria reproduces better by going through human hosts and mosquito carriers than by going airborne. If going airborne helped an individual generation of malaria, malaria would already be airborne.

slapshot 10y ago

> what if the disease that are currently only spread via mosquitoes mutate/evolve themselves to be airborne? Evolution doesn't have an intent. Diseases can't "evolve themselves." Evolution happens through random mutations* and selection of the fittest. If a mutation makes a virus or bacteria or protozoan more likely to survive, then the descendants of the mutant tend to multiply more and become more common. If the mutation makes the organism less likely to survive, descendants of the mutant tend to die out over time. (In other words, no matter how hard you hope your offspring will be born with four arms, they never will be.) If anything, eliminating mosquitoes will make us SAFER from airborne zika or malaria. Why? Right now, there are tens of millions of infected mosquitoes out there right now. If airborne malaria is possible, there are tens of millions of chances for it to occur every day. And that would be such a powerful disease that it wouldn't matter that there also exists bloodborne malaria. If we eliminate tens of millions of malaria hosts, we reduce the number of chances for malaria to mutate into an airborne form. As it happens, I don't think airborne malaria is likely -- the life cycle of malaria is way too complex and depends too much on stages that are specific to mosquitoes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria But the idea is the same. * And a few other processes, such as DNA exchange, but the effect is the same for this purpose.

imakesnowflakes 10y ago
>Evolution doesn't have an intent. Diseases can't "evolve themselves." I know. But when you remove mosquitoes from the picture, aren't you putting selection pressure on the diseases to be airborne? >Evolution happens through random mutations* and selection of the fittest... Yes. Say a virus of a disease x that normally spreads via mosquitos, gain a mutation to be airborne. But since there are an abundance of mosquitoes, an airborne strain does not have an advantage over mosquitoes borne strain. So it dies off (because of competition) But when you eradicate the mosquitoes, or reduce their number significantly, suddenly the airborne strain has a tremendous advantage over the mosquito borne strain. Hence it can grow in numbers and eventually completely replace the mosquito borne strain... Isn't this even remotely possible?
- slapshot 10y ago
  > aren't you putting selection pressure on the diseases to be airborne? > an airborne strain does not have an advantage over mosquitoes borne strain There are hundreds of millions of people today who don't currently have malaria, but would be at risk to get malaria if it went airborne. Airborne malaria wouldn't be competing with mosquitoborne malaria. It'd be competing with running out of people to kill. There seems to be a startup lesson here: your competition isn't legacy players. It's non-consumption.
  - imakesnowflakes 10y ago
    Sorry. I have no idea what you are talking about. Are you a biologist/ecologist or someone knowledgeable in the field?
    - jessaustin 10y ago
      Instead of asking for credentials, just think a little harder. If "airborne malaria" could possibly be a thing, it would already be a thing. Plasmodium isn't a work crew responsible for killing a given number of people every year, after which they relax for a bit, only getting really creative when they fall behind their quota. It is a reproducing species that will reproduce and thrive as much as possible. There is no intelligence guiding mutation. If flying were an option, Plasmodium would be flying. Your question is like asking, "if we rounded up all the lions in Africa and put them in pens, would they evolve wings to escape?" Yes it's that silly.