Parasite biodiversity faces extinction and redistribution in a changing climate

Carlson, Colin J.; Burgio, Kevin R.; Dougherty, Eric R.; Phillips, Anna J.; Bueno, Veronica; Clements, Christopher F.; Castaldo, Giovanni; Dallas, Tad; Cizauskas, Carrie A.; Cumming, Graeme S.; Doña, Jorge; Harris, Nyeema C.; Jovani, Roger; Mironov, Sergey V.; Muellerklein, Oliver; Proctor, H. C.; Getz, Wayne M.

doi:10.1126/sciadv.1602422

Cited by 204 publications

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“…The possibility that symbiont species might be at risk of extinction (e.g., Carlson et al., ; Rózsa & Vas, ) suggests the need for a rapid integration of this knowledge into bird‐related practices, such as those in wild bird conservation programmes. Also, our results suggest that further studies of birds in farms, zoos and the pet trade are needed, where traditionally feather mites were viewed as parasites, with birds provided with treatment using acaricides (e.g., Alekseev, ; Salisch, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feather mites play a role in cleaning host feathers: New insights from DNA metabarcoding and microscopy

et al. 2018

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Parasites and other symbionts are crucial components of ecosystems, regulating host populations and supporting food webs. However, most symbiont systems, especially those involving commensals and mutualists, are relatively poorly understood. In this study, we have investigated the nature of the symbiotic relationship between birds and their most abundant and diverse ectosymbionts: the vane-dwelling feather mites. For this purpose, we studied the diet of feather mites using two complementary methods. First, we used light microscopy to examine the gut contents of 1,300 individual feather mites representing 100 mite genera (18 families) from 190 bird species belonging to 72 families and 19 orders. Second, we used high-throughput sequencing (HTS) and DNA metabarcoding to determine gut contents from 1,833 individual mites of 18 species inhabiting 18 bird species. Results showed fungi and potentially bacteria as the main food resources for feather mites (apart from potential bird uropygial gland oil). Diatoms and plant matter appeared as rare food resources for feather mites. Importantly, we did not find any evidence of feather mites feeding upon bird resources (e.g., blood, skin) other than potentially uropygial gland oil. In addition, we found a high prevalence of both keratinophilic and pathogenic fungal taxa in the feather mite species examined. Altogether, our results shed light on the long-standing question of the nature of the relationship between birds and their vane-dwelling feather mites, supporting previous evidence for a commensalistic-mutualistic role of feather mites, which are revealed as likely fungivore-microbivore-detritivore symbionts of bird feathers.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feather mites play a role in cleaning host feathers: New insights from DNA metabarcoding and microscopy

et al. 2018

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“…The size of the LNHM data allows for the creation of global helminth parasite richness maps at the country level. Understanding species global distributions is a pressing need given land use change and an accelerating rate of species extinctions (Carlson et al, ; Cizauskas et al, ; Pimm et al, ). Further, understanding hotspots of parasite richness and diversity is a first step toward understanding spatial variation in transmission risk and parasite spillover (Poulin, Guilhaumon, Randhawa, Luque, & Mouillot, ; Poulin, Krasnov, Mouillot, & Thieltges, ).…”

Section: Helminth Macroecological Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Parasite ecology has only recently begun to address the extent to which macroecological patterns apply to parasites (Hechinger, ; Kamiya, O'dwyer, Nakagawa, & Poulin, ; Krasnov, Shenbrot, Khokhlova, & Allan Degen, ; Poulin, ). These efforts have been facilitated by increased parasite occurrence data availability (Carlson et al, ; Gibson, Bray, & Harris, ), and the pressing need to understand how host–parasite interactions will change across a shifting environmental landscape (Lafferty, ). Recent parasite macroecology studies – for example, Morand and Krasnov (), Stephens et al () and Guernier, Hochberg, and Guégan () – have also revealed that parasites can provide interesting and unique tests of macroecological theory.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, helminth parasites are subject to environmental and host availability constraints that have resulted in a variety of helminth behavioural, physiological and morphological adaptations (Hayunga, ) likely placing controls on helminth species distributions. Notably, a greater understanding of how these two filters interact to shape parasite occurrences can promote the development of predictive models of helminth parasitism (Dallas, Park, & Drake, ), and facilitate studies of how shifting host distributions influence parasite distributions (Carlson et al, ). Moreover, examining parasites in this manner can address to what extent parasite macroecological patterns are simply emergent properties of host distributions as opposed to true relationships.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…see https://www.thiswormyworld.org/), and compiled global occurrence datasets are rapidly becoming available (e.g. Carlson et al, ). In this study, we took advantage of an, as yet, underutilized source of host‐helminth occurrence data curated by the London Natural History Museum (LNHM), and freely accessible to the public via a web‐interface, a well‐developed application programming interface, and an R package (helminthR; Dallas, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gauging support for macroecological patterns in helminth parasites

Dallas

Aguirre

Budischak

et al. 2018

Global Ecol Biogeogr

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Aim To explore spatial patterns of helminth parasite diversity, and to investigate three main macroecological patterns – (a) latitude–diversity relationships, (b) positive scaling between parasite and host diversity, and (c) species–area relationships – using a largely underutilized global database of helminth parasite occurrence records. Location Global. Methods We examined the London Natural History Museum’s collection of helminth parasite occurrence records, consisting of over 18,000 unique host species and 27,000 unique helminth parasite species distributed across over 350 distinct terrestrial and aquatic localities. Results We find support for latitudinal gradients in parasite diversity and a strong relationship between host and parasite diversity at the global scale. Helminth species diversity–area relationships were not detectable as a function of host body mass, but larger geographic areas supported higher parasite richness, potentially mediated through higher host richness. Main conclusions Our findings indicate that helminth parasites may obey some of the macroecological relationships found in free‐living species, suggesting that parasites may offer further support for the generality of these patterns, while offering interesting counterexamples for others. We conclude with a discussion of future directions and potential challenges in the newly emerging macroecology of infectious disease.

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Using phylogeographic link‐prediction in primates to prioritize human parasite screening

Werner

Kasan

Geyer

et al. 2022

American Journal of Biological Anthropology

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ObjectivesThe ongoing risk of emerging infectious disease has renewed calls for understanding the origins of zoonoses and identifying future zoonotic disease threats. Given their close phylogenetic relatedness and geographic overlap with humans, non‐human primates (NHPs) have been the source of many infectious diseases throughout human evolution. NHPs harbor diverse parasites, with some infecting only a single host species while others infect species from multiple families.Materials and MethodsWe applied a novel link‐prediction method to predict undocumented instances of parasite sharing between humans and NHPs. Our model makes predictions based on phylogenetic distances and geographic overlap among NHPs and humans in six countries with high NHP diversity: Columbia, Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, China, and Indonesia.ResultsOf the 899 human parasites documented in the Global Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology Network (GIDEON) database for these countries, 12% were shared with at least one other NHP species. The link prediction model identified an additional 54 parasites that are likely to infect humans but were not reported in GIDEON. These parasites were mostly host generalists, yet their phylogenetic host breadth varied substantially.DiscussionAs human activities and populations encroach on NHP habitats, opportunities for parasite sharing between human and NHPs will continue to increase. Our study identifies specific infectious organisms to monitor in countries with high NHP diversity, while the comparative analysis of host generalism, parasite taxonomy, and transmission mode provides insights to types of parasites that represent high zoonotic risk.

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Parasite biodiversity faces extinction and redistribution in a changing climate

Abstract: Parasites face range loss and shifts under climate change, with likely parasite extinction rates of up to one in three species.

Cited by 204 publications

References 103 publications

Feather mites play a role in cleaning host feathers: New insights from DNA metabarcoding and microscopy

Feather mites play a role in cleaning host feathers: New insights from DNA metabarcoding and microscopy

Gauging support for macroecological patterns in helminth parasites

Using phylogeographic link‐prediction in primates to prioritize human parasite screening

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