Metacommunity structure reveals that temperature affects the landscape compositional patterns of avian malaria and related haemosporidian parasites across elevations
Por:
Alvarez-Mendizabal, Paulina, Villalobos, Fabricio, Rodriguez-Hernandez, Karla, Hernandez-Lara, Carolina, Rico-Chavez, Oscar, SUZAN, GERARDO, Chapa-Vargas, Leonardo, Santiago-Alarcon, Diego
Publicada:
1 nov 2021
Resumen:
Metacommunity ecology studies how species compositional patterns and
their distributions vary across local and regional scales and provides
insights on processes driving the distribution of communities. Avian
haemosporidians comprise a diverse and widely distributed parasite
taxon; some studies have analyzed their alpha and beta diversity
patterns. Yet, metacommunity structures of avian haemosporidians and
thus relevant biotic and abiotic variables explaining such structures at
the landscape scale (i.e., 10-200 km) have not been assessed. We studied
the metacommunity structure of avian haemosporidian mtDNA cyt b lineages
and the infected avian host assemblage across four different elevations
in Central Veracruz, Mexico. We performed variation-partitioning
analyses to evaluate the contribution of host-related traits and
climatic variables to the metacommunity. We found a richness of 78
lineages within 38 infected species of birds. At the component community
level, we observed that bird species infected with a lower number of
parasite lineages (e.g., <3) represented a nested subset of those with a
higher number of parasite lineages (e.g., >8) (i.e., nested structure).
However, this nested pattern was due to the restricted spatiotemporal
co-occurrence of hosts and parasites, given the high degree of turnover
across elevations. Host-related traits (functional,
transmission-associated, and phylogenetic relationships) only explained
a small fraction of the variation (4.4%) in parasite lineage
composition across avian hosts. At the habitat level, there was a group
turnover by parasite genera across elevation (i.e., quasi-Clementsian
structure), which was partly explained by climatic variables (mean
annual temperature and annual diurnal range; 27.6%) that may constrain
parasite reproduction and vector distribution across the environmental
gradient. At the scale of our study, environmental conditions
represented a more important driver of avian haemosporidian
metacommunity structure than host-related traits, suggesting an
important role of environmental filtering structuring parasite
assemblages at the landscape level.
Filiaciones:
Alvarez-Mendizabal, Paulina:
Santiago-Alarcon, D (Corresponding Author), Inst Ecol AC, Red Biol & Conservac Vertebrados, Carretera Antigua Coatepec 351, Xalapa 91070, Veracruz, Mexico. Alvarez-Mendizabal, Paulina
Villalobos, Fabricio:
Santiago-Alarcon, D (Corresponding Author), Inst Ecol AC, Red Biol & Conservac Vertebrados, Carretera Antigua Coatepec 351, Xalapa 91070, Veracruz, Mexico. Alvarez-Mendizabal, Paulina
Rodriguez-Hernandez, Karla:
Santiago-Alarcon, D (Corresponding Author), Inst Ecol AC, Red Biol & Conservac Vertebrados, Carretera Antigua Coatepec 351, Xalapa 91070, Veracruz, Mexico. Alvarez-Mendizabal, Paulina
Hernandez-Lara, Carolina:
Santiago-Alarcon, D (Corresponding Author), Inst Ecol AC, Red Biol & Conservac Vertebrados, Carretera Antigua Coatepec 351, Xalapa 91070, Veracruz, Mexico. Alvarez-Mendizabal, Paulina
Rico-Chavez, Oscar:
Santiago-Alarcon, D (Corresponding Author), Inst Ecol AC, Red Biol & Conservac Vertebrados, Carretera Antigua Coatepec 351, Xalapa 91070, Veracruz, Mexico. Alvarez-Mendizabal, Paulina
SUZAN, GERARDO:
Santiago-Alarcon, D (Corresponding Author), Inst Ecol AC, Red Biol & Conservac Vertebrados, Carretera Antigua Coatepec 351, Xalapa 91070, Veracruz, Mexico. Alvarez-Mendizabal, Paulina
Chapa-Vargas, Leonardo:
Santiago-Alarcon, D (Corresponding Author), Inst Ecol AC, Red Biol & Conservac Vertebrados, Carretera Antigua Coatepec 351, Xalapa 91070, Veracruz, Mexico. Alvarez-Mendizabal, Paulina
Santiago-Alarcon, Diego:
Santiago-Alarcon, D (Corresponding Author), Inst Ecol AC, Red Biol & Conservac Vertebrados, Carretera Antigua Coatepec 351, Xalapa 91070, Veracruz, Mexico. Alvarez-Mendizabal, Paulina
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