Patterns of Avian Haemosporidian Infections Vary with Time, but not Habitat, in a Fragmented Neotropical Landscape
Date
2018-10-31
Authors
Rivero de Aguilar, Juan
Castillo, Fernando
Moreno, Andrea
Penafiel, Nicolas
Browne, Luke
Walter, Scott T.
Karubian, Jordan
Bonaccorso, Elisa
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Abstract
Habitat loss has the potential to alter vertebrate host populations and their interactions with parasites. Theory predicts a decrease in parasite diversity due to the loss of hosts in such contexts. However, habitat loss could also increase parasite infections as a result of the arrival of new parasites or by decreasing host immune defenses. We investigated the effect of habitat loss and other habitat characteristics on avian haemosporidian infections in a community of birds within a fragmented landscape in northwest Ecuador. We estimated Plasmodium and Haemoproteus parasite infections in 504 individual birds belonging to 8 families and 18 species. We found differences in infection status among bird species, but no relationship between forest fragment characteristics and infection status was observed. We also found a temporal effect, with birds at the end of the five-month study (which ran from the end of the rainy season thru the dry season), being less infected by Plasmodium parasites than individuals sampled at the beginning. Moreover, we found a positive relationship between forest area and Culicoides abundance. Taken as a whole, these findings indicate little effect of fragment characteristics per se on infection, although additional sampling or higher infection rates would have offered more power to detect potential relationships.
Description
Keywords
habitat loss, parasites, neotropical landscape, Biology
Citation
Rivero de Aguilar, J., Castillo, F., Moreno, A., Peñafiel, N., Browne, L., Walter, S. T., Karubian, J., Bonaccorso, E. (2018). Patterns of avian haemosporidian infections vary with time, but not habitat, in a fragmented Neotropical landscape. PLoS ONE 13(10), e0206493.
Rights
Rights Holder
© 2018 Rivero de Aguilar et al.
Rights License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.