Interspecific transfer of parasites following a range-shift in Ficedula flycatchers

TY - JOUR

T1 - Interspecific transfer of parasites following a range-shift in Ficedula flycatchers

AU - Jones, William

AU - Kulma, Katarzyna

AU - Bensch, Staffan

AU - Cichon, Mariusz

AU - Kerimov, Anvar

AU - Krist, Milos

AU - Laaksonen, Toni

AU - Moreno, Juan

AU - Munclinger, Pavel

AU - Slater, Fred M.

AU - Szollosi, Eszter

AU - Visser, Marcel E.

AU - Qvarnstrom, Anna

N1 - 6670, AnE; Data Archiving: Data archived at Dryad, Parasite lineage information has been deposited in the MalAvi databas and Sequence data from COLL13 will be deposited in GenBank.

PY - 2018/12

Y1 - 2018/12

N2 - Human-induced climate change is expected to cause major biotic changes in species distributions and thereby including escalation of novel host-parasite associations. Closely related host species that come into secondary contact are especially likely to exchange parasites and pathogens. Both the Enemy Release Hypothesis (where invading hosts escape their original parasites) and the Novel Weapon Hypothesis (where invading hosts bring new parasites that have detrimental effects on native hosts) predict that the local host will be most likely to experience a disadvantage. However, few studies evaluate the occurrence of interspecific parasite transfer by performing wide-scale geographic sampling of pathogen lineages, both within and far from host contact zones. In this study, we investigate how haemosporidian (avian malaria) prevalence and lineage diversity vary in two, closely related species of passerine birds; the pied flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca and the collared flycatcher F. albicollis in both allopatry and sympatry. We find that host species is generally a better predictor of parasite diversity than location, but both prevalence and diversity of parasites vary widely among populations of the same bird species. We also find a limited and unidirectional transfer of parasites from pied flycatchers to collared flycatchers in a recent contact zone. This study therefore rejects both the Enemy Release Hypothesis and the Novel Weapon Hypothesis and highlights the complexity and importance of studying host-parasite relationships in an era of global climate change and species range shifts.

AB - Human-induced climate change is expected to cause major biotic changes in species distributions and thereby including escalation of novel host-parasite associations. Closely related host species that come into secondary contact are especially likely to exchange parasites and pathogens. Both the Enemy Release Hypothesis (where invading hosts escape their original parasites) and the Novel Weapon Hypothesis (where invading hosts bring new parasites that have detrimental effects on native hosts) predict that the local host will be most likely to experience a disadvantage. However, few studies evaluate the occurrence of interspecific parasite transfer by performing wide-scale geographic sampling of pathogen lineages, both within and far from host contact zones. In this study, we investigate how haemosporidian (avian malaria) prevalence and lineage diversity vary in two, closely related species of passerine birds; the pied flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca and the collared flycatcher F. albicollis in both allopatry and sympatry. We find that host species is generally a better predictor of parasite diversity than location, but both prevalence and diversity of parasites vary widely among populations of the same bird species. We also find a limited and unidirectional transfer of parasites from pied flycatchers to collared flycatchers in a recent contact zone. This study therefore rejects both the Enemy Release Hypothesis and the Novel Weapon Hypothesis and highlights the complexity and importance of studying host-parasite relationships in an era of global climate change and species range shifts.

KW - international

KW - community ecology

KW - Ficedula

KW - parasitology

KW - range expansion

KW - avian malaria

UR - https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7t4s040

U2 - 10.1002/ece3.4677

DO - 10.1002/ece3.4677

M3 - Article

SN - 2045-7758

VL - 8

SP - 12183

EP - 12192

JO - Ecology and Evolution

JF - Ecology and Evolution

IS - 23

ER -