Leveraging Long‐Term Ecological Research Initiatives Into the One Health Synthesis

ABSTRACT There is still little emphasis within One Health on building linkages between human health, changes in biodiversity, and ecosystem perturbation. We use the Great Plains, a system of substantial One Health concern, to illustrate a persistent data challenge to this issue, through the lens of small mammals, parasitic vectors of disease, and long‐term ecosystem change. We assembled specimens of small mammals to assess species turnover coupled with mitochondrial sequencing to examine intra‐specific diversity of the dominant species. We also assessed ectoparasite infection rates and related all to habitat changes. All data were retrieved from public data aggregators and combined datasets present a scenario of high potential for emergence of disease. With cessation of natural fire, watersheds that were previously grassland are now 50% woody cover following four decades of experimentation. Woody encroachment led to turnover in rodent species from Peromyscus sonoriensis (a grassland species) to Peromyscus leucopus (a woodland species), resetting the template for host‐vector‐pathogen dynamics. This was accompanied by a reduction in mammal species richness and roughly doubling in carrying capacity of high‐risk hosts and disease vectors. Hosts, vectors, and pathogens that have maintained long‐term separation may now experience increased contact as mosaics of woody encroachment bridge networks of species across the Great Plains. Knowledge of these progressive dynamics is evident through site‐intensive and long‐term sampling, and through novel data syntheses that collectively indicate heightened risk of emerging zoonotic disease throughout the region. This research promotes novel digitized data linkages between specimen time‐series, long‐term ecological research, and pathogen surveillance. We call for a “One Data” approach that emphasizes the need for building relational linkages between these vast data repositories that fuel still largely independent research priorities, but would collectively enable epidemiological advances for human health outcomes under the One Health synthesis.