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Half of a forest bird community infected with haemosporidian parasites
Introduction: Parasites play important roles in ecosystems. Through their interactions with host and vector species, they are capable of changing the behavior and population dynamics of their host species, and the shape of entire communities. Over the past years, many studies have acknowledged th...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Philipps-Universität Marburg
2023
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | PDF Full Text |
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| Summary: | Introduction: Parasites play important roles in ecosystems. Through their
interactions with host and vector species, they are capable of changing the behavior
and population dynamics of their host species, and the shape of entire communities.
Over the past years, many studies have acknowledged the role of parasitism for
host populations and communities and discovered their important regulatory
functions for many vertebrate populations. Although birds are a well-studied group
of vertebrates, the infection patterns of endoparasites at the community level are
not fully understood. Some bird species and families are known to have a higher
susceptibility to certain endoparasites than others, which may be driven by their
abundance in the community.
Methods: Over the course of four consecutive breeding seasons (2019–2022),
we monitored the patterns of endoparasite infections in a bird community of a
temperate forest ecosystem. We sampled 483 birds belonging to 29 Palearctic species
and investigated the prevalence of blood parasites (haemosporidian parasites) and
Trichomonas spp. using molecular methods.
Results: We found an overall prevalence of 48.1% of haemosporidians belonging
to 53 genetic lineages of the three genera Haemoproteus, Leucocytozoon, and
Plasmodium spp. While the bird families Turdidae (94%) and Paridae (76%) showed a
high prevalence of haemosporidians, Certhiidae, and Picidae were not infected (0%).
Host–parasite network analysis detected high variability in interactions. Infections
with Trichomonas spp. were not observed in the forest bird community.
Discussion: We found that the prevalence and lineage diversity of haemosporidian
parasites differed between avian families and that the parasite prevalence of a family
could not serve as a predictor of lineage diversity. To further assess the consequences
of these host–parasite interactions for bird communities, future research should aim
to disentangle the infection pathways in different ecosystems while also considering
the vector community and environmental factors. |
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| Item Description: | Gefördert durch den Open-Access-Publikationsfonds der UB Marburg. |
| DOI: | 10.3389/fevo.2023.1107736 |