Biogeography of avian blood parasites (Leucocytozoon spp.) in two resident hosts across Europe: phylogeographic structuring or the abundance–occupancy relationship?

Abstract

Relationships between hosts and parasites represent complex co-evolving systems that can vary both temporally and spatially. This variation may result in different phylogeographic outcomes, ranging from highly geographically structured parasite populations comprised of specialist lineages that are locally abundant but have restricted global occupancy to geographically unstructured parasite populations consisting of widespread parasites. Here, we present results from a large biogeographic study of the Leucocytozoon blood parasites of two nonmigrant bird species, conducted at nine sites across Europe. The aim was to determine whether the parasite lineages of the two hosts were phylogeographically structured across Europe. Employing molecular methods, we found a large diversity of parasites, and although overall prevalence varied greatly, the parasites were not genetically structured. Several measures of local parasite abundance were associated with the number of sites that the lineage occurred in, which is consistent with the macroecological phenomenon of the abundance-occupancy relationship. Taken together, our results show that parasite dispersal is somewhat uncoupled to that of the host in this system: we suggest that broad host and/or vector preference may play an important role in determining the distribution of these parasites and in affecting host-parasite coevolution in this system.

Integrating coalescent species delimitation with analysis of host specificity reveals extensive cryptic diversity despite minimal mitochondrial divergence in the malaria parasite genus Leucocytozoon

“…In particular, a “one base pair rule” whereby a single base pair difference in the cytb barcoding fragment indicates reproductive isolation has become a popular means with which to delimit species in macroecological studies of haemosporidian diversity [35, 36, 78] despite mixed support for the rule [22, 79, 80]. We recovered support for 21 species of Leucocytozoon despite studying 28 cytb haplotypes, several of which differed by a single base pair.…”

“…For example, the highly influential study by Bensch et al [13] found that in some instances a single base pair difference could be used to delimit species within the genus Haemoproteus ( Parahaemoproteus ), which has since been adopted as a general rule in many studies for delimiting putative haemosporidian species (e.g. [35–37]).…”

High prevalence of Leucocytozoon parasites in fresh water breeding gulls

“…Parasites in the genus Leucocytozoon are distributed worldwide and occur in a broad range of host species; they are relatively rare in seabirds and have previously never been detected in the genus Larus (Valkiūnas 2005;Atkinson et al 2008;Jenkins and Owens 2011;Quillfeldt et al 2011). Among seabirds, high prevalence of Leucocytozoon was previously recorded in penguins (73.7 %; Argilla et al 2013).…”

“…Bensch et al 2000;Waldenstöm et al 2004;Bensch and Å kesson 2003;Scheuerlein and Ricklefs 2004;Wood et al 2007;Jenkins and Owens 2011;Swanson et al 2014;Zhao et al 2014).…”

Altitudinal variation in haemosporidian parasite distribution in great tit populations

“…Many studies have focussed on great tits and how haemosporidian parasites affect and interact with reproductive success [23-29]. Nevertheless, little is known about natural haemosporidian prevalences and the parasite lineages infecting these birds (however, see [30] and [7]). In this study, three altitudinally separated populations of great tits were sampled over a three year period and haemosporidian prevalence, diversity and distribution were assessed across time and space.…”