META-ANALYSIS
We conducted a systematic literature search and meta-analysis to
evaluate the impacts of three broad types of environmental stressors on
disease dynamics. First, we confirmed that pathogen exposure in
laboratory studies typically negatively affected host fitness. We then
proceeded with our main meta-analyses focused on two specific questions:
Q1) were stressor fitness effects more severe for infected vs.
uninfected hosts?, and Q2) was infectivity more susceptible to
environmental stress than host fitness traits? To address these
questions with data from primary studies, we used infection intensity
and prevalence as proxies for infectivity and survivorship and fecundity
as proxies of host fitness.