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Assessing global drivers of parasite diversity: host diversity and body mass boost avian haemosporidian diversity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2024

Daniela de Angeli Dutra*
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand
*
Corresponding author: Daniela de Angeli Dutra; Email: danideangeli@live.com

Abstract

Biodiversity varies worldwide and is influenced by multiple factors, such as environmental stability and past historical events (e.g. Panama Isthmus). At the same time, organisms with unique life histories (e.g. parasites) are subject to unique selective pressures that structure their diversity patterns. Parasites represent one of the most successful life strategies, impacting, directly and indirectly, ecosystems by cascading effects on host fitness and survival. Here, I focused on a highly diverse, prevalent and cosmopolitan group of parasites (avian haemosporidians) to investigate the main drivers (e.g. host and environmental features) of regional parasite diversity on a global scale. To do so, I compiled data from 4 global datasets on (i) avian haemosporidian (malaria and malaria-like) parasites, (ii) bird species diversity, (iii) avian functional traits and (iv) climate data. Then, using generalized least square models, I evaluated the effect of host and environmental features on haemosporidian diversity. I found that haemosporidian diversity mirrors host regional diversity and that higher host body mass increases haemosporidian diversity. On the other hand, climatic conditions had no effect on haemosporidian diversity in any model. When evaluating Leucocytozoon parasites separately, I found parasite diversity was boosted by a higher proportion of migratory hosts. In conclusion, I demonstrated that haemosporidian parasite diversity is intrinsically associated with their hosts’ diversity and body mass.

Information

Type
Research Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Figure 1. Bird collection sites. The colour scale represents spatial variation in bird species richness worldwide. Collection sites comprise a total of 100 regions and 207 localities (including offshore islands) extracted from the MalAvi database.

Figure 1

Table 1. Estimates, standards error, confidence intervals and P values for host migratory status and body mass, climatic conditions, host diversity and sampling effort effects on phylogenetic haemosporidian diversity

Figure 2

Figure 2. Relationship between phylogenetic haemosporidian diversity and A – host diversity, B – host body mass, C – the proportion of migratory hosts on Leucocytzoon diversity and D – sampling effort.

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Table 2. Estimates, standards error, confidence intervals and P values for host migratory status and body mass, climatic conditions, host diversity and sampling effort effects on phylogenetic Plasmodium diversity.

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Table 3. Estimates, standards error, confidence intervals and P values for host migratory status and body mass, climatic conditions, host diversity and sampling effort effects on phylogenetic Haemoproteus diversity

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Table 4. Estimates, standards error, confidence intervals and P values for host migratory status and body mass, climatic conditions, host diversity and sampling effort effects on phylogenetic Leucocytozoon diversity

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