Jl. Tella et al., Habitat, world geographic range, and embryonic development of hosts explain the prevalence of avian hematozoa at small spatial and phylogenetic scales, P NAS US, 96(4), 1999, pp. 1785-1789
Citations number
53
Categorie Soggetti
Multidisciplinary
Journal title
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
The factors explaining interspecific differences in prevalences of blood pa
rasites in birds are poorly known. We simultaneously assessed 20 social, ec
ological, life history, and sampling-related variables that could influence
hemoparasite prevalences among diurnal birds of prey in Spain. Our results
show that multiple factors are responsible for the studied host-parasite a
ssociation. We confirmed for the first time that prevalence is inversely co
rrelated to the embryonic development period, and thus probably to immune p
erformance, even among closely related birds, Macrohabitat features related
to vector availability are also important, prevalences being higher in spe
cies breeding in forested habitats. Finally, prevalence is positively corre
lated with the host's world geographic range. We hypothesize that larger ge
ographic ranges offered more opportunities for host-vector-hemoparasite ass
ociations to become established. The results from our multivariate analyses
differ from those obtained through univariate ones, showing that all poten
tial factors should be assessed jointly when testing any ecological or evol
utionary hypothesis dealing with parasites.