Climate change, biodiversity loss, and emerging infectious diseases are deeply intertwined, and understanding these connections is key to achieving UN Sustainable Development Goal 15: Life on Land. This theme took centre stage at the inaugural symposium of Washington University in St. Louis School of Public Health’s Solutions through Planetary Health Research (SPHERE) network convening: Disease Ecology on a Changing Planet. The event brought together leading voices in ecology, infectious disease, and public health to examine how environmental disruption influences disease emergence.
As the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) SDG 15 Hub Vice-Chair for Research, WashU is uniquely positioned to advance research and partnerships that promote biodiversity conservation and planetary health. The SPHERE network embodies that mission by linking scientific discovery with actionable solutions that sustain ecosystems and human well-being.
The symposium’s first keynote speaker, Felicia Keesing, PhD, of Bard College, explored the crucial role of biodiversity in preventing pandemics. Her talk, “Biodiversity and Infectious Diseases: Principles to Guide Prevention,” challenged the assumption that tropical biodiversity “hot spots” pose the greatest risk for disease emergence. Instead, she emphasized that biodiversity loss, not richness, is the major driver of zoonotic risk.
“The most actionable thing we know about zoonotic pathogens, from a disease ecology point of view, is this: Biodiversity is protecting us from emerging infectious diseases,” Keesing said. “Biodiverse hot spots are not dangerous to us. What we need to worry about are places where biodiversity has rapidly been lost. Places that are biodiverse — we should be conserving them, protecting them, and in those areas that have lost biodiversity, we should be doing a lot of surveillance and mitigation and, if possible, restoring biodiversity.”
Panel discussions highlighted how land use change, climate shifts, and species interactions create new dynamics in disease ecology. WashU’s Solny Adalsteinsson, PhD, from the Tyson Research Center, shared insights on expanding tick populations and the emergence of invasive species like the longhorn tick, emphasizing the need for proactive monitoring and ecosystem-based prevention strategies.
The second keynote, Neil Vora, MD, of the Preventing Pandemics at the Source Coalition, broadened the conversation to global health security.
“To me, pandemics, climate change, and biodiversity loss are all catastrophic threats rooted in our broken relationship to nature,” Vora said. “This is no longer theoretical. Millions of people will die in the years to come because of climate change, but people are also dying right now. We’re not talking nearly enough about this. It’s only recently that we have really been talking about climate and health, and we’re still not talking about biodiversity, even though biodiversity is the underpinning of all life on this planet. There is no future for humanity without nature. We have to accept that living within ecological boundaries is not optional.”
A later panel, featuring policy experts, physician-researchers, and local government underscored the importance of translating research into sustainable policy and community impact. Panelists emphasized that solutions must extend beyond discovery to long-term, locally grounded action.
More than 500 participants from around the globe joined the discussion, both in person and online. The audience included high school and university students, researchers, community members, and practitioners and reflected a shared commitment to building a healthier, more sustainable planet through research and partnership.
The symposium reflected WashU’s leadership in bridging research and practice to achieve SDG 15’s vision of restoring and protecting life on land. Through SPHERE and its role as the UNAI SDG 15 Hub Vice-Chair for Research, WashU is advancing integrative science and partnerships that recognize biodiversity as the foundation of planetary and human health.
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