Data from: Habitat fragmentation, not habitat loss, drives the prevalence of blood parasites in a Caribbean passerine

Habitat destruction due to human land-use activities is well recognized as
a central threat to biodiversity. However, there is still debate about the
relative influence of its two components, habitat loss and habitat
fragmentation, mostly because few studies have been able to disentangle
their respective effects. We studied mechanisms by which habitat
destruction might influence the prevalence of vector-transmitted
haemosporidian blood parasites of the genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus
the Lesser Antillean Bullfinch, Loxigilla noctis, on the Caribbean islands
of Guadeloupe and Martinique . Starting from a large set of environmental
descriptors (including metrics reflecting habitat loss, habitat
fragmentation and landscape heterogeneity; as well as other variables not
linked to habitat destruction, such as climatic conditions), we used PLS
regression analyses to determine which variables were driving parasite
prevalence on the islands. Our results showed that variables related to
forest destruction were much more influential than other factors for all
parasites analyzed on both islands. Remarkably, the effects documented
were almost exclusively due to forest fragmentation, as opposed to habitat
loss. This positive effect of forest fragmentation on blood parasite
prevalence is proposed to happen through its effects on insect vectors
and/or host biology. Increased understanding of the role of habitat
fragmentation as a driver of parasitic diseases can help anticipate future
effects and limit the risk of emergence and proliferation of wildlife
pathogenic outbreaks and zoonosis through informed landscape planning.