12 Sauli Laaksonen et al. CONCLUSIONS Climate and associated weather events are increasingly being recognized or predicted as factors linked to emerging diseases attributable to both helminth macroparasites and micro- parasites, including bacterial pathogens (Handeland and Slettbakk, 1994; Patz et al., 1996; Harvell et al., 2002; Kutz et al., 2005; Jenkins et al., 2006; Hoberg et al., 2008a; Ytrehus et al., 2008; Laaksonen et al., 2009) in these high-latitude systems. Drivers for emergence are predicted to be complex, and for S. tundra represent interactions among mammals, arthropods, and parasites where both direct and indirect effects of temperature and humidity can inﬂuence the out- come. Causes of the current and expanding declines in global populations of caribou and reindeer remain poorly under- stood, but parasites and pathogens have not been considered in synergy with a diverse array of abiotic and biotic deter- minants (Vors and Boyce, 2009; Kutz et al., 2009a). Condi- tions in the sub-Arctic region of Fennoscandia clearly indicate the potential impact of pathogens on the viability, persistence, and sustainability of populations of semi- domestic and free-ranging ungulates (Laaksonen et al., 2007). Environmental perturbation and emergent disease can threaten food security, socioeconomic and ecological stability across the north with pervasive cascading effects for northern cultures, and communities that remain dependant on wildlife resources (Hoberg et al., 2008a, b). Consequently, parasites, pathogens and disease must be factored into the equations for understanding current and future scenarios for high-latitude ecosystems under a regime of accelerating change (Kutz et al., 2004, 2009b; Lemke et al., 2007; Hoberg et al., 2008a, b; Tryland et al., 2009). Beyond the sub-Arctic, a future of global climate change could facilitate translocation, geographic expan- sion, and dissemination of pathogenic tropical ﬁlarioids into the Northern Hemisphere, leading to detrimental effects on mammalian host populations and expansion of zoonotic infections in humans (Taylor et al., 2001). Understanding these processes depends on broadened investigations and surveillance exploring the emergence of vector-borne and other parasitic diseases in northern wildlife, with attention to the complex interactions among parasites, their invertebrate and mammalian hosts, and the environment (Kuiken et al., 2005). Eco- system approaches that develop comprehensive baselines for biodiversity (linked to museum archives) against which to assess environmental change and an exploration of developmental thresholds, tolerance, and resilience for pathogens and hosts are requisite components of such programs (Hoberg et al., 2008a, b; Tryland et al., 2009). OPEN ACCESS This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and repro- duction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. REFERENCES Anderson JR, Nilssen A (1998) Do reindeer aggregate on snow patches to reduce harassment by parasitic ﬂies or thermoregu- late? Rangifer 18:3–17 Barry WA, Juliano SA (2001) Precipitation and temperature ef- fects on populations of Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae): implications for range expansion. Journal of Medical Entomology 38:646–656 Calado DC, Navarro-Silva MA (2002) Inﬂueˆncia da temperatura sobre a longevidade, fecundidade e atividade hematofa´gica de Aedes (Stegomyia) albopictus Skuse, 1894 (Diptera, Culicidae) sob condic¸o˜es de laborato´ rio [in Portuguese with English ab- stract]. Revista Brasileira de Zoologia 46:93–98 Clements AN (1963) The Physiology of Mosquitoes, Oxford: Pergamon Press Dadaev S (1984) Special features of the prevalence of the nema- tode Setaria labiatopapillosa in cattle in Uzbekistan. Uzbekskii Biologicheskii Zhurnal 4:40–42 Delatte H, Gimonneau G, Triboire A, Fontenille D (2009) Inﬂu- ence of temperature on immature development, survival, lon- gevity, fecundity, and gonotrophic cycles of Aedes albopictus, vector of Chikungunya and Dengue in the Indian Ocean. Journal of Medical Entomology 46:33–41 Dobson AP, Foufopoulus J (2001) Emerging infectious pathogens of wildlife. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 356:1001–1012 Gubler DJ, Reiter P, Ebi KL, Yap W, Nasci R, Patz JQA (2001) Climate variability and change in the United States: potential impacts on vector- and rodent-borne disease. Environmental Health Perspectives 109:223–233 Handeland K, Slettbakk T (1994) Outbreaks of clinical cerebro- spinal elaphostrongylosis in reindeer (Rangifer tarandus taran- dus) in Finnmark, Norway, and their relation to climatic conditions. Journal of Veterinary Medicine Series B 41:407–410 Harvell CD, Mitchell CE, Ward JR, Altizer S, Dobson AP, Ostfeld RS, et al. (2002) Climate warming and disease risks for terres- trial and marine biota. Science 296:2158–2162. doi:10.1126/ science.1063699 Helle T, Aspi J (1984) Do sandy batches help reindeer against insects? Reports from the Kevo Subarctic Research Station 19:57–62 Helle T, Aspi J, Lempa K, Taskinen E (1992) Strategies to avoid biting ﬂies by reindeer: ﬁeld experiment with silhouette traps. Annales Zoologici Fennici 29:69–74