Abstract
Environmental conditions, including anthropogenic disturbance, can significantly alter host and parasite communities. Yet, our current knowledge is based mainly on endoparasites, while ectoparasites remain little studied. We studied the indirect effects of anthropogenic disturbance (human population density) and climate (temperature, precipitation and elevation) on abundance of highly host-specific bat flies in four Neotropical bat species across 43 localities in Venezuela. We formulated a set of 11 a priori hypotheses that included a combination of the two effectors and host species. Statistically, each of these hypotheses was represented by a zero-inflated negative binomial mixture model, allowing us to control for excess zeros in the data. The best model was selected using Akaike's information criteria. Fly abundance was affected by anthropogenic disturbance in Artibeus planirostris, Carollia perspicillata and Pteronotus parnellii, but not Desmodus rotundus. Climate affected fly abundance in all bat species, suggesting mediation of these effects via the host or by direct effects on flies. We conclude that human disturbance may play a role in shaping bat-bat fly interactions. Different processes could determine fly abundance in the different bat species.
Highlights
All organisms, including parasites, are influenced by the environment in which they occur
We examined the effects of anthropogenic disturbance and climate on fly abundance in four widespread species of Neotropical bats parasitized by highly host-specific bat flies
Our analysis showed that fly abundance is greatly influenced by the identity of the bat species, suggesting that in the bats we examined, parasite abundance may be a host-species attribute
Summary
All organisms, including parasites, are influenced by the environment in which they occur. Parasites are enormously diverse and ubiquitous in distribution, our understanding of environmental effects on host-parasite dynamics in wildlife is limited mainly to aquatic environments (e.g., [1,2]). Recent research in terrestrial habitats has mainly investigated the extent of anthropogenic disturbance on endoparasites (e.g., [3,4]), whereas ectoparasites have been largely neglected (but see [5]). It is imperative to investigate the effects of the environment (e.g., climate and anthropogenic disturbance) on ectoparasites in terrestrial habitats because ectoparasites exert important selective pressures on the evolution of their hosts [6] by affecting host fitness and population dynamics [6,7]. Environmental effects on parasite abundance can be direct, operating on the parasites themselves. The processes that determine parasite transmission and establishment are governed by multiple factors that operate simultaneously and whose effects are usually difficult to separate [12]
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