a Frontiers of Biogeography 2021, 13.2, e49428 Frontiers of Biogeography RESEARCH ARTICLE the scientific journal of the International Biogeography Society Biogeographic patterns of blood parasitism in the Aegean wall lizard (Podarcis erhardii) across the Cycladic Islands Johanna L. Fornberg1,2* and Sarah L. Semegen1 1 School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, USA; 2 Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California - Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93117, USA. *Correspondence: Johanna Fornberg (
[email protected]), Address: University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA. Abstract Highlights The biogeography of host-parasite dynamics is an area • Land-bridge islands provide a natural study system that has received little attention in studies of island to explore the effect of island structure and ecology ecology. While a few studies have shed insight on patterns on native host-parasite interactions, such as the of parasitism in insular host populations, more empirical relationship of hemogregarine parasites and a lacertid evidence is needed to ascertain how isolation impacts lizard host, Podarcis erhardii, in the Cyclades. parasites. Biogeography generally theorizes that the physical size of islands and the duration of each island’s • We fit models of prevalence and parasitemia to isolation can be driving geographic factors controlling empirical observational data and demonstrated that species interactions and populations dynamics. To biological and geographical factors correlate with test this, we assessed the effect of island structure parasitism, and that biological and geographical and population isolation on the endemic insular lizard variables are interconnected in this context. Podarcis erhardii and its native hemogregarine parasite (Apicomplexa: Adeleorina) in the Cyclades (Aegean • This work suggests that isolation time and host Sea).