eng International Academy of Ecology and Environmental Sciences Computational Ecology and Software 2220-721X 2015-12-1 5 4 367 379 9 article Min Su 1 2 Hong Wang 1 2 School of Mathematics, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China We briefly present a synthesis of theoretical models in eco-epidemiology which merges the fields of ecology and epidemics. In particular we discuss the role of parasites/pathogens in community assembly formation and species coexistence, as well as the potential of biological control. Recent works have revealed that the complexity in parasite-mediated interactions can alter the dynamic behavior of eco-epidemiological systems, exhibiting oscillations, switching stability regimes. Both community structure and interaction strength also can affect the role of parasites in the host-parasite dynamics. The emerging research area focuses on the spatial structure and distribution pattern in eco-epidemiology. Compared with the well mixed system, spatial structure in eco-epidemiology can lead to different dynamic behavior. We therefore highlight the need to address the impact of parasites/pathogens on real community structures and combine the evolutionary potential to predict the complex dynamics during the biological control in eco-epidemiological systems. http://www.iaees.org/publications/journals/ces/articles/2015-5(4)/modeling-ecology-and-epidemiology.pdf eco-epidemiology community structure spatial structure predation pressure species coexistence