Parasite and viral species richness of Southeast Asian bats: Fragmentation of area distribution matters

Gay, Noellie; Olival, Kevin J.; Bumrungsri, Sara; Siriaroonrat, Boripat; Bourgarel, Mathieu; Morand, Serge

Our analysis highlights the significantly negative effect of bat distribution shape on endoparasite and viral species richness. The negative correlation between the distribution shape and viral or endoparasite species richness corroborate results from Turmelle and Olival (2009) , who found greater viral richness in bat species with more genetically structured populations. However, the relationship between genetic diversity and distribution shape (i.e., fragmentation) is not well known but should be a negative as an increase in fragmentation should reduce interactions between bats Table 4 Best model explaining viral richness, ectoparasite and endoparasite species richness in Southeast Asian bats using independent contrasts (initial model with investigating effort, host body mass, colony size, number of breeding seasons, geographical distribution size and fragmentation of the geographical distribution) using the AIC criteria (with SD = standard deviation of the slope). and thus increase genetic divergence. This hypothesis remains to be tested as more information on genetic diversity of bats from SEA becomes available. Although the distribution shape is not an index of the fragmentation of habitat, it may reflect a border effect of bat species' distribution area and thus could be considered as a bat species characteristic. This index may originate from the evolutionary biogeographical history of each species (expansion and reduction of population range) (Hampe and Petit, 2005 ). An increase of distribution shape may reveal species vulnerability, characterized by low population size and patchy distribution leading to a decrease in parasite diversity. The importance of the distribution shape draws attention on environmental factors that may affect border edge, particularly in the face of the ongoing global change.