Urban habitat fragmentation and floral resources shape the occurrence of gut parasites in two bumblebee species.

ABSTRACT: Urbanization and the expansion of human activities foster radical ecosystem changes with cascading effects also involving host-pathogen interactions. Urban pollinator insects face several stressors related to landscape and local scale features such as green habitat loss, fragmentation and availability reduction of floral resources with unpredictable effects on parasite transmission. Furthermore, beekeeping may contribute to the spread of parasites to wild pollinators by increasing the number of parasite hosts. Here we used DNA-based diagnostics tools to evaluate how the occurrence of parasites, namely microsporidians (Nosema spp.), trypanosomatids (Crithidia spp.) and neogregarines (Apicystis bombi), is shaped by the above-mentioned stressors in two bumblebee species (

SUBMITTER: Tommasi N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10338672 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature