Habitat fragmentation matters more than habitat loss: The case of host-parasite interactions.

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Serval ID
serval:BIB_30081BD907A4
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Habitat fragmentation matters more than habitat loss: The case of host-parasite interactions.
Journal
Molecular ecology
Author(s)
Perrin A., Khimoun A., Ollivier A., Richard Y., Pérez-Rodríguez A., Faivre B., Garnier S.
ISSN
1365-294X (Electronic)
ISSN-L
0962-1083
Publication state
Published
Issued date
02/2023
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
32
Number
4
Pages
951-969
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article
Publication Status: ppublish
Abstract
While ecologists agree that habitat loss has a substantial negative effect on biodiversity it is still very much a matter of debate whether habitat fragmentation has a lesser effect and whether this effect is positive or negative for biodiversity. Here, we assess the relative influence of tropical forest loss and fragmentation on the prevalence of vector-borne blood parasites of the genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus in six forest bird species. We also determine whether habitat loss and fragmentation are associated with a rise or fall in prevalence. We sample more than 4000 individual birds from 58 forest sites in Guadeloupe and Martinique. Considering 34 host-parasite combinations independently and a fine characterization of the amount and spatial configuration of habitat, we use partial least square regressions to disentangle the relative effects of forest loss, forest fragmentation, landscape heterogeneity, and local weather conditions on spatial variability of parasite prevalence. Then we test for the magnitude and the sign of the effect of each environmental descriptor. Strikingly, we show that forest fragmentation explains twice as much of the variance in prevalence as habitat loss or landscape heterogeneity. In addition, habitat fragmentation leads to an overall rise in prevalence in Guadeloupe, but its effect is variable in Martinique. Both habitat loss and landscape heterogeneity exhibit taxon-specific effects. Our results suggest that habitat loss and fragmentation may have contrasting effects between tropical and temperate regions and that inter-specific interactions may not respond in the same way as more commonly used biodiversity metrics such as abundance and diversity.
Keywords
Animals, Host-Parasite Interactions, Ecosystem, Forests, Biodiversity, Birds/parasitology, avian malaria, habitat amount, habitat configuration, landscape epidemiology, meteorological conditions, tropical forest
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
12/12/2022 11:35
Last modification date
24/07/2024 5:58
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