Forests of opportunities and mischief: disentangling the interactions between forests, parasites and immune responses

Renner, Swen C.; Lüdtke, Bruntje; Kaiser, Sonja; Kienle, Julia; Schaefer, H. Martin; Segelbacher, Gernot; Tschapka, Marco; Santiago‐Alarcon, Diego

doi:10.1016/j.ijpara.2016.04.008

Cited by 25 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…For instance, forest types change in the Lesser Antilles as a function of altitude, orientation, and whether the forest is primary or secondary (Joseph 2016). This in turn determines the structure of vegetation within patches, which is an important driver of vector-borne parasitism (Abella-Medrano et al 2015, Renner et al 2016, Hernández-Lara et al 2017 and is somewhat independent of the degree of forest fragmentation (Fischer and Lindenmayer 2007). Composition of the habitat matrix among forest patches can also be of great importance, as it could either facilitate or limit vector dispersal and diversity (Pope et al 2005, Mendenhall et al 2013, González-Quevedo et al 2014.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat fragmentation, not habitat loss, drives the prevalence of blood parasites in a Caribbean passerine

et al. 2018

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Habitat destruction due to human land-use activities is well recognized as a central threat to biodiversity. However, there is still debate about the relative influence of its two components, habitat loss and habitat fragmentation, mostly because few studies have been able to disentangle their respective effects. We studied mechanisms by which habitat destruction might influence the prevalence of vector-transmitted haemosporidian blood parasites of the genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus infecting the Lesser Antillean bullfinch Loxigilla noctis on the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Starting from a large set of environmental descriptors (including metrics reflecting habitat loss, habitat fragmentation and landscape heterogeneity; as well as other variables not linked to habitat destruction, such as climatic conditions), we used PLS regression analyses to determine which variables were driving parasite prevalence on the islands. Our results showed that variables related to forest destruction were much more influential than other factors for all parasites analyzed on both islands. Remarkably, the effects documented were almost exclusively due to forest fragmentation, as opposed to habitat loss. This positive effect of forest fragmentation on blood parasite prevalence is proposed to happen through its effects on insect vectors and/or host biology. Increased understanding of the role of habitat fragmentation as a driver of parasitic diseases can help limiting the risk of emergence and proliferation of wildlife pathogenic outbreaks and zoonosis through informed landscape planning.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat fragmentation, not habitat loss, drives the prevalence of blood parasites in a Caribbean passerine

et al. 2018

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“…The life history and habitat preferences of the avian hosts play an essential role in determining the likelihood of an infection [6,18]. Hence, habitat change alters ecosystem processes and species interactions, leading for example to higher infection rates in more intensively used habitats [19,20].…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Forest habitat structure and management may therefore affect host-vector-parasite interactions in a predictable way, as a function of both avian and insect abundances. In a previous study, the forest habitat was included explicitly as forest categories (i.e., forest stands dominated by one tree species, such as beech or spruce) and forest structure (i.e., continuous variables assessing the interior structural heterogeneity, such as amount of gaps, canopy heterogeneity and canopy height), but the vectors have not been explicitly included in the models so far [19].…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The original hypotheses (c.f. [19]) can be interpreted as a 'top-down'-hypothesis and a 'bottom-up'-hypothesis. In the top-down-hypothesis, forest structure (as a proxy for management) a priori determines bird infection risk due to the habitat suitability for vectors, in turn triggering an immune response in birds, which then consumes resources fighting-off the infection that would otherwise be available for body growth (measured by asymmetries in tarsus and feather growth).…”

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Effects of forest structure on the interaction between avian hosts, dipteran vectors and haemosporidian parasites

et al. 2020

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Background: Forest habitats are important biodiversity refuges for a wide variety of bird species. Parasitism may modulate host species presence and abundance, and parasite effects can change according to forest management practices. Such processes are not well studied in vector-borne avian haemosporidians. We analyzed the effects of forest management on bird-dipteran-haemosporidian interactions, using seven common bird species in managed and unmanaged beech forest habitats in northeastern Germany. We assumed that forest structural heterogeneity affects parasite population parameters in avian hosts (i.e., prevalence and parasitemia), through its effect on the condition of the avian host but also through varying vector abundances. Results: Parasite prevalence was high (about 80%) and homogeneous across different beech forest categories (i.e., young, old, unmanaged) and for all bird species, except Erithacus rubecula (35%). Parasitemia varied across bird species but not across forest categories within each avian species (lowest parasitemia were found in E. rubecula, Turdus merula, and Turdus philomelos). In our study system, we found that vector abundance was not the main driver of parasite dynamics. We found that forest structure affects parasite infection probability directly and potentially host condition via available resources that have to be used either to combat infections (i.e., high parasitemia) or to maintain a good body condition. Conclusions: The effects of each of the predictors were bird species-specific, and we found that Diptera vectors were not the foremost influence in our host-vector-parasite system. Effects of forest habitat variables indicated that for most bird species in this study, habitat regulation of infection probability was more likely (i.e., E. rubecula, Fringilla coelebs, Sylvia atricapilla), whereas for Parus major habitat characteristics impacted first individuals' body condition and subsequently the probability of infection. Our findings emphasize the need of species-specific analyses and to use continuous forest structural parameters (e.g., the proportion of gap, south facing aspect) to better understand habitat and land use effects on host-vector-parasite dynamics.

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“…We opened nets 30 min after local sunrise to hit the activity peak of birds and left nets open for five consecutive hours. For improved capture success we placed two playback stations (two per exploratory) close to the mist nets, playing territorial songs of our nine focal species (these are nine species we focus on for other studies: Cyanistes caeruleus, Erithacus rubecula, Fringilla coelebs, Parus major, Periparus ater, Sylvia atricapilla, Troglodytes troglodytes, Turdus merula, Turdus philomelos; [13]). We determined species, sex, and age wherever possible [28].…”

Section: Capturing Of Birdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological and Functional Traits in 99 Bird Species over a Large-Scale Gradient in Germany

Renner

Hoesel

2017

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Abstract:A gap still exists in published data on variation of morphological and ecological traits for common bird species over a large area. To diminish this knowledge gap, we report here average values of 99 bird species from three sites in Germany from the Biodiversity Exploratories on 24 ecological and functional traits. We present our own data on morphological and ecological traits of 28 common bird species and provide additional measurements for further species from published studies. This is a unique data set from live birds, which has not been published and is available neither from museum nor from any other collection in the presented coverage.Data Set: available as the supplementary file. Data Set License: CC-BY

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Forests of opportunities and mischief: disentangling the interactions between forests, parasites and immune responses

Cited by 25 publications

References 54 publications

Habitat fragmentation, not habitat loss, drives the prevalence of blood parasites in a Caribbean passerine

Habitat fragmentation, not habitat loss, drives the prevalence of blood parasites in a Caribbean passerine

Effects of forest structure on the interaction between avian hosts, dipteran vectors and haemosporidian parasites

Ecological and Functional Traits in 99 Bird Species over a Large-Scale Gradient in Germany

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