Host species, and not environment, predicts variation in blood parasite prevalence, distribution, and diversity along a humidity gradient in northern South America.

ABSTRACT: Environmental factors strongly influence the ecology and evolution of vector-borne infectious diseases. However, our understanding of the influence of climatic variation on host-parasite interactions in tropical systems is rudimentary. We studied five species of birds and their haemosporidian parasites (Plasmodium and Haemoproteus) at 16 sampling sites to understand how environmental heterogeneity influences patterns of parasite prevalence, distribution, and diversity across a marked gradient in water availability in northern South America. We used molecular methods to screen for parasite infections and to identify parasite lineages. To characterize spatial heterogeneity in water availability, we used weather-station and remotely sensed climate data. We estimated parasite pre

SUBMITTER: Pulgarin-R PC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5916302 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature