Anthropogenic effects on avian haemosporidians and their vectors

Abstract

With a population of nearly 8 billion humans, the planet is going through rapid unprecedented change. Human activities cause deforestation, desertification, urbanization, and climate change, all of which are affecting the tropical regions of the world. For example, it is clear that anthropogenic disturbance in tropical forests can rapidly increase biodiversity loss, and global environmental change may severely further degrade forests in the future. With regard to avian haemosporidians, it is not entirely clear how these changes will affect the prevalence, diversity, and pathogenicity of the parasites, but several studies have provided insights into how human impacts in the tropics will affect birds, vectors, and blood parasites. This chapter summarizes recent work that investigates the human effects on haemosporidian disease ecology.