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The prevalence of avian Plasmodium is higher in undisturbed tropical forests of Cameroon
- Camille Bonneaud, Irem Sepil, Borja Milá, Wolfgang Buermann, John Pollinger, Ravinder N.M. Sehgal, Gediminas Valkiūnas, Tatjana A. Iezhova, Sassan Saatchi, Thomas B. Smith
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- Journal:
- Journal of Tropical Ecology / Volume 25 / Issue 4 / July 2009
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 01 July 2009, pp. 439-447
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- Article
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Habitat fragmentation and deforestation are thought to disrupt host–parasite interactions and increase the risk of epizootic outbreaks in wild vertebrates. A total of 220 individuals from three species of African rain-forest bird (Andropadus latirostris, Andropadus virens, Cyanomitra obscura), captured in two pristine and two agroforests in Cameroon, were screened for the presence of avian haemosporidian parasites (species of Plasmodium and Haemoproteus) to test whether habitat differences were associated with differences in the prevalence of infectious diseases in natural populations. Thirteen mitochondrial lineages, including 11 Plasmodium and two Haemoproteus lineages were identified. Whereas levels of Haemoproteus spp. infections were too low to permit analysis, the prevalence of infections with Plasmodium spp. reached significantly greater levels in undisturbed mature forests. Importantly however, the significant association between forest type and parasite prevalence was independent of host density effects, suggesting that the association did not reflect changes in host species composition and abundance between forest types. Our results illustrate how characterizing land-cover differences, and hence changes, may be a prerequisite to understanding and predicting patterns of parasite infections in natural populations of rain-forest birds.
8 - Putting process on the map: why ecotones are important for preserving biodiversity
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- By Thomas B. Smith, Center for Tropical Research, Institute of the Environment, University of California at Los Angeles, 1609 Hershey Hall, Box 951496, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1496, Sassan Saatchi, Radar Science Section, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA, Catherine Graham, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA, Hans Slabbekoorn, Behavioural Biology, Institute of Evolutionary and Ecological Sciences, Leiden University, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands, Greg Spicer, Department of Biology, San Francisco, State University, 1600 Holloway, San Francisco, CA 94132, USA
- Edited by Andrew Purvis, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, John L. Gittleman, University of Virginia, Thomas Brooks, Conservation International, Washington DC
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- Book:
- Phylogeny and Conservation
- Published online:
- 04 December 2009
- Print publication:
- 22 September 2005, pp 166-197
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
The mechanisms responsible for generating high rainforest diversity have been of keen interest to biologists for over a century (Moritz et al. 2000; Prance 1982; Wallace 1852). Numerous theories for rainforest diversification and speciation have been advanced, but few have been rigorously tested (Moritz et al. 2000). While the evolutionary processes that give rise to, and maintain, rainforest diversity are debated within the scientific community, the loss and degradation of rainforests continues at an alarming rate. Currently, conservative estimates of rainforest loss in some regions is estimated to approach 1% per year (Achard et al. 2002), and rates of human-induced forest degradation and fragmentation are likely to be many times higher (Wuethrich 2000). Given the current crisis, understanding the processes that generate and maintain rainforest diversity takes on added importance and urgency. Despite the importance of considering evolutionary and ecological process in conservation planning (Desmet et al. 2002; Smith et al. 1993), few rainforest conservation efforts consider landscape features, which harbour the evolutionary processes on which the generation of new biodiversity ultimately depends (Smith et al. 2001a).
The belief that refugial isolation is responsible for rainforest speciation (Haffer 1969, 1997) has, in particular, been an important driver of conservation prioritisation in many regions (Myers et al. 2000; Hamilton et al. 2001; Myers 2002). However, the conservation focus on refugia has serious shortcomings (Smith et al. 2001a; Spector 2002).