title: Assessing the effects of climate on host-parasite interactions: a comparative study of European birds and their parasites.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Climate change potentially has important effects on distribution, abundance, transmission and virulence of parasites in wild populations of animals.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Here we analyzed paired information on 89 parasite populations for 24 species of bird hosts some years ago and again in 2010 with an average interval of 10 years. The parasite taxa included protozoa, feather parasites, diptera, ticks, mites and fleas. We investigated whether change in abundance and prevalence of parasites was related to change in body condition, reproduction and population size of hosts. We conducted analyses based on the entire dataset, but also on a restricted dataset with intervals between study years being 5-15 years. Parasite abundance increased over time when restricting the analyses to datasets with an interval of 5-15 years, with no significant effect of changes in temperature at the time of breeding among study sites. Changes in host body condition and clutch size were related to change in temperature between first and second study year. In addition, changes in clutch size, brood size and body condition of hosts were correlated with change in abundance of parasites. Finally, changes in population size of hosts were not significantly related to changes in abundance of parasites or their prevalence.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Climate change is associated with a general increase in parasite abundance. Variation in laying date depended on locality and was associated with latitude while body condition of hosts was associated with a change in temperature. Because clutch size, brood size and body condition were associated with change in parasitism, these results suggest that parasites, perhaps mediated through the indirect effects of temperature, may affect fecundity and condition of their hosts. The conclusions were particularly in accordance with predictions when the restricted dataset with intervals of 5-15 years was used, suggesting that short intervals may bias findings.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Ecologie, Systematique et Evolution, Unité Mixte de Recherche 8079 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique-Université Paris-Sud XI-AgroParisTech, Batiment 362, Université Paris-Sud XI, F-91405 Orsay, France.
authors.forename: Anders Pape
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Møller
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificos, C/José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Santiago
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Merino
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ecología Funcional y Evolutiva, Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas, Estacion Experimental de Zonas Aridas-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificos, Ctra. Sacramento s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, Almería, Spain.
authors.forename: Juan José
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Soler
authors.affiliation: National Museum of Natural History - Sofia, Bulgarian Academy of Science, Sofia, Bulgaria.
authors.forename: Anton
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Antonov
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificos, C/José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Elisa P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Badás
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ecología Funcional y Evolutiva, Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas, Estacion Experimental de Zonas Aridas-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificos, Ctra. Sacramento s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, Almería, Spain.
authors.forename: Miguel A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Calero-Torralbo
authors.affiliation: Departamento de de Anatomía, Biología Celular y Zoología, Universidad de Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain.
authors.forename: Florentino
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: de Lope
authors.affiliation: Section of Ecology, Department of Biology, FIN-20014 University of Turku, Finland.
authors.forename: Tapio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Eeva
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ecología de Humedales, Estación Biológica Doñana (Estacion Biologica de Doñana-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificos), Sevilla, Spain.
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Figuerola
authors.affiliation: Cypresvej 1, DK-9700 Brønderslev, Denmark.
authors.forename: Einar
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Flensted-Jensen
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Estación Biológica Doñana (Estacion Biologica de Doñana-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificos), Sevilla, Spain.
authors.forename: Laszlo Z
authors.initials: LZ
authors.lastname: Garamszegi
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificos, C/José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Sonia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: González-Braojos
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Eberhard-Gwinner-Straße, Haus Nr. 11, Seewiesen, Germany.
authors.forename: Helga
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gwinner
authors.affiliation: Norwegian Institute for Nature Research - Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Polar Environmental Centre, Tromsø, Norway.
authors.forename: Sveinn Are
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Hanssen
authors.affiliation: Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Antwerpen, Belgium.
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Heylen
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetics and Physiology, University of Turku, Finland.
authors.forename: Petteri
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ilmonen
authors.affiliation: Skovvej, DK-9490 Pandrup, Denmark.
authors.forename: Kurt
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Klarborg
authors.affiliation: Section of Ecology, Department of Biology, FIN-20014 University of Turku, Finland.
authors.forename: Erkki
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Korpimäki
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Parasitología, Universidad de Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Spain.
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Martínez
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ecología de Humedales, Estación Biológica Doñana (Estacion Biologica de Doñana-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificos), Sevilla, Spain.
authors.forename: Josue
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Martínez-de la Puente
authors.affiliation: Departamento de de Anatomía, Biología Celular y Zoología, Universidad de Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain.
authors.forename: Alfonso
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marzal
authors.affiliation: Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Antwerpen, Belgium.
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Matthysen
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Biology and Environmental Sciences, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw, Woycickiego 1/3, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Matyjasiak
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Zoología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Mercedes
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Molina-Morales
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificos, C/José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Moreno
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, United States of America.
authors.forename: Timothy A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Mousseau
authors.affiliation: Espedal 4, Tolne, DK-9870 Sindal, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jan Tøttrup
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.affiliation: Evolutionary Ecology Group, Hungarian Department of Biology and Ecology, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj Napoca, Romania.
authors.forename: Péter László
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Pap
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificos, C/José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rivero-de Aguilar
authors.affiliation: National Museum of Natural History - Sofia, Bulgarian Academy of Science, Sofia, Bulgaria.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Shurulinkov
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Tore
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Slagsvold
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Sciences, College of Nyíregyháza, H-4400 Nyíregyháza, Sóstói út 31/b, Hungary.
authors.forename: Tibor
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Szép
authors.affiliation: Behavioural Ecology Group, Department of Systematic Zoology and Ecology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter stny 1/C, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Eszter
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Szöllősi
authors.affiliation: Behavioural Ecology Group, Department of Systematic Zoology and Ecology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter stny 1/C, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Janos
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Török
authors.affiliation: Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, Bratislava, Slovakia.
authors.forename: Radovan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vaclav
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ecología Funcional y Evolutiva, Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas, Estacion Experimental de Zonas Aridas-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificos, Ctra. Sacramento s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, Almería, Spain.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Valera
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Badji Mokhtar University, Boite Postal 12, Annaba, Algeria.
authors.forename: Nadia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ziane
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001717:Birds / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000502:physiology; D057231:Climate Change; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D057232:Global Warming; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D008297:Male; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012098:Reproduction; D013997:Time Factors