title: Land use and wetland spatial position jointly determine amphibian parasite communities.
abstract: Land use change is one of the most commonly cited contributing factors to infectious disease emergence, yet the mechanisms responsible for such changes and the spatial scales at which they operate are rarely identified. The distributions of parasites with complex life cycles depend on interactions between multiple host species, suggesting the net effects of land use on infection patterns may be difficult to predict a priori. Here, we used an information-theoretic approach to evaluate the importance of land use and spatial scale (local, watershed, and regional) in determining the presence and abundance of multi-host trematodes of amphibians. Among 40 wetlands and 160 hosts sampled, trematode abundance, species richness, and the presence and abundance of pathogenic species were strongly influenced by variables at the watershed and regional scales. Based on model averaging results, overall parasite richness and abundance were higher in forested wetlands than in agricultural areas; however, this pattern was influenced by a wetland's proximity to the Mississippi Flyway at the regional scale. These patterns likely reflect the activity of trematode definitive hosts, such as mammals and especially birds, such that infections decreased with increasing distance from the Mississippi River. Interestingly, despite lower mean infections, agricultural wetlands had higher variances and maximum infections. At the wetland scale, phosphorus concentrations and the abundances of intermediate hosts, such as snails and larval amphibians, positively affected parasite distributions. Taken together, these results contribute to our understanding of how altered landscapes affect parasite communities and inform further research on the environmental drivers of amphibian parasite infections.
authors.affiliation: Department of Water Resources, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83843, USA.
authors.forename: Richard B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Hartson
authors.forename: Sarah A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Orlofske
authors.forename: Vanessa E
authors.initials: VE
authors.lastname: Melin
authors.forename: Robert T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Dillon
authors.forename: Pieter T J
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Johnson
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D000663:Amphibians / Q000469:parasitology*; D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D017753:Ecosystem; D005843:Geography; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D011157:Population Dynamics; D014197:Trees; D014200:Trematoda / Q000145:classification* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D053833:Wetlands; D014922:Wisconsin
references.citation: Oecologia. 2001 Mar;127(1):115-122
references.pmid: 28547162
references.citation: J Parasitol. 1999 Jun;85(3):592-4
references.pmid: 10386465
references.citation: Parasitology. 1998 Apr;116 ( Pt 4):395-405
references.pmid: 9585941
references.citation: Int J Environ Health Res. 2003 Jun;13(2):125-48
references.pmid: 12745335
references.citation: J Wildl Dis. 2006 Jul;42(3):578-88
references.pmid: 17092889
references.citation: Parasitology. 2007 Jun;134(Pt 6):763-76
references.pmid: 17234043
references.citation: Trends Ecol Evol. 2005 Jun;20(6):328-36
references.pmid: 16701389
references.citation: Environ Manage. 2000 May;25(5):485-512
references.pmid: 10742477
references.citation: Acta Trop. 2001 Feb 23;78(2):103-16
references.pmid: 11230820
references.citation: J Helminthol. 2005 Jun;79(2):95-103
references.pmid: 15946392
references.citation: Clin Med Res. 2003 Jan;1(1):5-12
references.pmid: 15931279
references.citation: PLoS One. 2008 Jun 25;3(6):e2488
references.pmid: 18575599
references.citation: Science. 1999 Apr 30;284(5415):802-4
references.pmid: 10221912
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Oct 2;104(40):15781-6
references.pmid: 17893332
references.citation: J Parasitol. 2007 Oct;93(5):992-8
references.pmid: 18163331
references.citation: Science. 2004 Dec 3;306(5702):1783-6
references.pmid: 15486254
references.citation: Ecology. 2008 Feb;89(2):439-51
references.pmid: 18409433
references.citation: J Parasitol. 2003 Jun;89(3):475-82
references.pmid: 12880244
references.citation: Nature. 2008 Oct 30;455(7217):1235-9
references.pmid: 18972018
references.citation: Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1994 Jul 29;345(1311):101-18
references.pmid: 7972351
references.citation: Trends Parasitol. 2006 Dec;22(12):568-74
references.pmid: 17035087
references.citation: Emerg Infect Dis. 2007 Mar;13(3):365-72
references.pmid: 17552088
references.citation: J Parasitol. 2007 Apr;93(2):265-73
references.pmid: 17539408
references.citation: J Parasitol. 2006 Oct;92(5):997-1001
references.pmid: 17152940
references.citation: Parasitol Res. 1997;83(7):666-9
references.pmid: 9272555
references.citation: Environ Toxicol Chem. 2003 May;22(5):1127-33
references.pmid: 12729224
references.citation: Oecologia. 2003 May;135(3):469-76
references.pmid: 12721838
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2002 Jul 23;99(15):9900-4
references.pmid: 12118118
references.citation: J Parasitol. 2004 Feb;90(1):50-9
references.pmid: 15040666
references.citation: Parasitology. 2007 Dec;134(Pt.14):2063-80
references.pmid: 17672926
references.citation: Oecologia. 2007 Jan;150(4):569-81
references.pmid: 17004055
references.citation: Proc Biol Sci. 2005 May 22;272(1567):1059-66
references.pmid: 16024365
references.citation: Parasitol Today. 1997 Jul;13(7):251-5
references.pmid: 15275061
references.citation: Trends Parasitol. 2003 Jul;19(7):293-9
references.pmid: 12855379