Malaria parasites of a widespread suboscine antbird in South America: assessing the influence of geographic distance and host phylogeography on the prevalence, diversity, and community organization of parasites within and across biogeographic regions

Abstract

This study will investigate the geographical variation in avian malaria parasite (Apicomplexa: Haemosporida) diversity and prevalence within a single genus of bird (Pyriglena spp.), which has a widespread distribution in the Neotropics. The objectives are to (1) determine how avian malaria parasites in Pyriglena spp. relate phylogenetically to avian malaria parasites from other regions of South and North America, (2) assess whether avian malaria parasite assemblages are more different among biogeographic regions than within, (3) determine whether areas of bird endemism (Amazon and Atlantic Forest) contain endemic parasites, (4) test whether similarity in avian malaria parasite community structure is influenced mostly by geographic distance or host phylogeography, (5) determine whether parasite prevalence varies between refuge and non-refuge areas in the Atlantic Forest, and (6) test whether abundant mtDNA haplotypes of Pyriglena leucoptera are at greater or lower risk of avian malaria infection. This will contribute to our understanding of factors determining the variation in parasite diversity and community organization as well as directly testing the importance of maintaining genetic diversity in the face of disease threats. (AU)