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Isotope signatures in winter moulted feathers predict malaria prevalence in a breeding avian host

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Author

Summary, in English

It is widely accepted that animal distribution and migration strategy might have co-evolved in relation to selection pressures exerted by parasites. Here, we first determined the prevalence and types of malaria blood parasites in a breeding population of great reed warblers Acrocephalus arundinaceus using PCR. Secondly, we tested for differences in individual feather stable isotope signatures (delta C-13, delta N-15, delta D and delta S-34) to investigate whether malaria infected and non-infected birds had occupied different areas in winter. We show that birds moulting in Afro-tropical habitats with significantly higher delta C-13 and delta N-15 but lower delta D and delta S-34 values were more frequently infected with malaria parasites. Based on established patterns of isotopic distributions, our results indicate that moulting sites with higher incidence of malaria are generally drier and situated further to the north in West Africa than sites with lower incidence of malaria. Our findings are pertinent to the general hypothesis that animal distribution and particularly avian migration strategy might evolve in response to selection pressures exerted by parasites at different geographic scales. Tradeoffs between investment in energy demanding life history traits (e.g. migration and winter moult) and immune function are suggested to contribute to the particular choice of habitat during migration and at wintering sites.

Publishing year

2008

Language

English

Pages

299-306

Publication/Series

Oecologia

Volume

158

Issue

2

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Springer

Topic

  • Biological Sciences

Keywords

  • malaria
  • Stable isotopes
  • Avian
  • Great reed warbler
  • Moult
  • Bird migration

Status

Published

Research group

  • Molecular Ecology and Evolution Lab

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1432-1939