Loss of forest cover and host functional diversity increases prevalence of avian malaria parasites in the Atlantic Forest.

Host phylogenetic relatedness and ecological similarity are thought to contribute to parasite community assembly and infection rates. However, recent landscape level anthropogenic changes may disrupt host-parasite systems by impacting functional and phylogenetic diversity of host communities. We examined whether changes in host functional and phylogenetic diversity, forest cover, and minimum temperature influence the prevalence, diversity, and distributions of avian haemosporidian parasites (genera Haemoproteus and Plasmodium) across 18 avian communities in the Atlantic Forest.