Data from: On the diverse and opposing effects of nutrition on pathogen virulence

Climate change and anthropogenic activity are currently driving large
changes in nutritional availability across ecosystems, with consequences
for infectious disease. An increase in host nutrition could lead to more
resources for hosts to expend on the immune system or for pathogens to
exploit. In this paper, we conducted a meta-analysis of studies on
host-pathogen systems across the tree of life, to examine the impact of
host nutritional quality and quantity on pathogen virulence. We did not
find broad support across studies for a one-way effect of nutrient
availability on pathogen virulence. We thus discuss a hypothesis that
there is a balance between the effect of host nutrition on the immune
system and on pathogen resources, with the pivot point of the balance
differing for vertebrate and invertebrate hosts. Our results suggest that
variation in nutrition, caused by natural or anthropogenic factors, can
have diverse effects on infectious disease outcomes across species.