Deforestation increases the abundance of rodents and their ectoparasites in the Lacandon forest, Southern Mexico
Introduction: Tropical forests provide important ecosystem services, including disease control. However, few studies have focused on how deforestation affects species more suitable to be zoonotic vectors. Objective: To evaluate how deforestation affects the abundance and species richness of rodents...
| Autores: | , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2023 |
| País: | México |
| Institución: | Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo |
| Repositorio: | Redalyc-UMSNH |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:redalyc.org:44975700013 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=44975700013 https://www.redalyc.org/journal/449/44975700013/ https://www.redalyc.org/journal/449/44975700013/html/ https://www.redalyc.org/journal/449/44975700013/44975700013.epub https://www.redalyc.org/journal/449/44975700013/movil |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Biología mites vectors zoonoses reservoirs Deforestation |
| Sumario: | Introduction: Tropical forests provide important ecosystem services, including disease control. However, few studies have focused on how deforestation affects species more suitable to be zoonotic vectors. Objective: To evaluate how deforestation affects the abundance and species richness of rodents and their associated ectoparasites in a tropical ecosystem. Methods: We captured rodents in 6 landscape units, 1 km² each, with 0.7; 5; 40; 46; 78 and 95 % tree cover, in Marques de Comillas, Chiapas, Southern Mexico. In each unit we set 90 Sherman traps that were active 24 hours for 7 days during two sampling seasons (October 2019, and September 2020). We manually extracted ectoparasites from all captured rodents. Results: We captured 70 rodents of five species: Sigmodon toltecus, Heteromys desmarestianus, Ototylomys phyllotis, Peromyscus mexicanus, and Oryzomys couesi. Rodent abundance increased with forest loss (R²= 0.706, P= 0.022). The greatest richness of rodent species occurred in sites with intermediate forest cover (40 and 78 %). The most abundant species were: S. toltecus (N= 45) followed by O. couesi (N= 9), these species dominated in sites with less forest cover. We recorded a total of 23 ectoparasite species, three of them known to be zoonotic vectors: Amblyomma sp., Ornithonyssus bacoti, and Androlaelaps fahrenholzi. Conclusions: The ongoing loss of forests promotes the proliferation of zoonotic disease vectors in this tropical ecosystem, which can potentially increase the frequency of affectation among the local population. |
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