Additional file 2: of Impact of life stage-dependent dispersal on the colonization dynamics of host patches by ticks and tick-borne infectious agents

To fully understand the consequences of the soft tick polyphasic cycle on vector-infection spread, we investigated the impact of an increase in the parameter feeding rate, c. This contact rate is only increased for nymphal and adult stages, as soft ticks take multiple short bloodmeals during those stages, while they only feed once during the larval stage, therefore c is kept equal to 1 at the larval stage. A slight increase in feeding rate leads to a rapid rise in the infection prevalence in soft tick systems, but as the soft ticks nidicolous lifestyle means that they probably feed on the same host or its offspring, soft tick multiple bloodmeal per life stage would certainly not increase vector-borne infection prevalence to the extent induced by direct changes of c. Figure S2. Vector-borne infection prevalence for different contact rates (i.e. tick feeding rate). Hard tick feed only once a year (c = 1 at all times), while soft can feed multiple times during nymphal and adult stages (c > 1 for nymphs and adults, c = 1 for larvae), which could potentially increase the opportunity for transmission, if they are to feed on different hosts. Default parameters are found in Table 1, θ = 0.001. Table S1. Parameters used for sensitivity analysis. (ZIP 217 kb)为全面阐明软蜱（soft tick）多相周期对媒介感染传播的影响，我们探究了取食率参数c提升所带来的效应。该接触率仅针对若虫与成虫阶段进行调整：因软蜱在若虫及成虫期会进行多次短时血餐，而幼虫阶段仅单次取食，故幼虫阶段的参数c恒为1。取食率的小幅提升会使软蜱种群的感染率快速升高，但由于软蜱具有栖巢生活习性（nidicolous lifestyle），通常仅寄居于同一宿主或其后代体内，因此单个生活阶段多次取食的软蜱，其虫媒感染率的提升幅度并不会像直接调整参数c那样显著。 图S2 不同接触率（即蜱类取食率）下的虫媒感染率。硬蜱（hard tick）每年仅取食一次（全阶段c恒为1），而软蜱可在若虫与成虫阶段多次取食（若虫及成虫阶段c>1，幼虫阶段c=1）；若软蜱寄居于不同宿主，则该特性或可提升病原体传播机会。默认参数详见表1，θ=0.001。表S1 敏感性分析所用参数。（ZIP 217 kb）