Avian haemosporidians at three environmentally contrasting urban greenspaces

Abstract

Conversion of natural habitats to urban developments influences the distribution and abundance of wildlife hosts, vectors, and their parasites.Within urban ecosystems, urban greenspaces are usually relics of the original local vegetation, but commonly with the presence of non-native vegetation. These areas are understudied fromthe parasitological perspective.We estimated avian haemosporidian (Haemoproteus, Plasmodium, and Leucocytozoon) prevalence, genetic lineage richness, and both bird and parasite assemblage structure at three environmentally contrasting urban greenspaces (nearctic open scrub forest, neotropicalmontane cloud forest, palearcticmixed-deciduous ash, oak, and pine forest). There were no bird species in common among the three urban sites, and only one family was shared (Fringillidae).We registered at nearctic and neotropical urban greenspaces 10 haemosporidian lineages; only one lineage (MALERY01) was shared between them. Parasites of the genus Haemoproteus weremore common in the open scrub urban greenspace than in themontane cloud urban greenspace, whereas those of the genus Plasmodium had the opposite tendency.We registered 20 lineages in the palearctic urban greenspace from the genera Plasmodium, Haemoproteus, and Leucocytozoon. Prevalence rates were similar among the three urban greenspaces and the assemblage structure of haemosporidian lineages was not significantly different among sites. Furthermore, the three urban greenspaces were composed by phylogenetically diverse parasite communities and were dominated by widespread generalist parasite lineages. Hence, our results suggest that despite contrasting environmental conditions and geographical isolation, there are parallels in the structure of avian haemosporidian communities among the three urban greenspaces.