Data from: Scale dependencies and generalism in host use shape virus prevalence

Processes that generate the distribution of pathogens and their
interactions with hosts are not insensitive to changes in spatial scale.
Spatial scales and species traits are often selected intentionally, based
on practical considerations, ignoring biases that the scale and type of
observation may introduce. Specifically, these biases might change the
interpretation of disease-diversity relationships that are reported as
either ‘dilution’ or ‘amplification’ effects. Here, we combine field data
of a host-pathogen community with empirical models to test the effects
that i) spatial scale and ii) host range have on the relationship between
plant-virus infection prevalence and diversity. We show that
prevalence-diversity relationships are scale dependent, and can produce
opposite effects associated with different habitats at sub-ecosystem
scales. The total number of host species of each virus reflected
generalism at the ecosystem scale. However, plasticity in host-range
resembled habitat-specific specialisation and also changed model
predictions. We show that habitat heterogeneity, ignored at larger
(ecosystem) spatial scales, influences pathogen distributions. Hence,
understanding disease distributions and the evolution of pathogens
requires reconciling specific hypotheses of the study with an appropriate
spatial scale, or scales, and consideration of traits, such as host range,
that might strongly contribute to biotic interactions.