Author:
del Mar Labrador María,Serrano David,Doña Jorge,Aguilera Eduardo,Arroyo José L.,Atiénzar Francisco,Barba Emilio,Bermejo Ana,Blanco Guillermo,Borràs Antoni,Calleja Juan A.,Cantó José L.,Cortés Verónica,De la Puente Javier,De Palacio Diana,Fernández-González Sofía,Figuerola Jordi,Frías Óscar,Fuertes-Marcos Benito,Garamszegi László Z.,Gordo Óscar,Gurpegui Míriam,Kovács István,Martínez José L.,Meléndez Leandro,Mestre Alexandre,Møller Anders P.,Monrós Juan S.,Moreno-Opo Rubén,Navarro Carlos,Pap Péter L.,Pérez-Tris Javier,Piculo Rubén,Ponce Carlos,Proctor Heather,Rodríguez Rubén,Sallent Ángel,Senar Juan Carlos,Tella José L.,Vágási Csongor I.,Vögeli Matthias,Jovani Roger
Abstract
AbstractComprehending symbiont abundance among host species is a major ecological endeavour, and the metabolic theory of ecology has been proposed to understand what constraints symbiont populations. We parameterized metabolic theory equations to predict how bird species’ body size and the body size of their feather mites relate to mite abundance according to four potential energy (microbial abundance, uropygial gland size) and space constraints (wing area, number of feather barbs). Predictions were compared with the empirical scaling of feather mite abundance from 26,604 birds of 106 passerine species, using phylogenetic modelling and quantile regression. Feather mite populations were strongly constrained by host space (number of feather barbs) and not energy. Moreover, feather mite species’ body size was unrelated to their abundance or to the body size of their host species. We discuss the implications of our results for our understanding of the bird-feather mite system and for symbiont abundance in general.
Publisher
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory