The observed relationship between increased forest fragmentation and increased incidence of Lyme disease. Introduction: Forest fragmentation is the process of division of large habitats into smaller, divided, and isolated fragmented areas. It lowers the quality of the forest. This results in the decline in the species richness in the fragments. The white-footed mice occupy a broad ecological niche, while opossums are absent from low-quality forest fragment. Hypothesis proposed: B. burgdorferi is the bacterium that is transferred into the body of humans by the ticks. The bacterium is an endoparasite that lives inside the human body and causes Lyme disease. The newly hatched ticks do not harbor B. burgdorferi bacterium as they are killed by the host when they crawl onto the host organism, and if they are successful in harvesting the blood from their host, then they are generally not infected by B. burgdorferi . A bar diagram showing the proportion of larval ticks that fed and caused infection versus host species is given below:

Question

Want to see the full answer?

Answer 1

Question

Chapter 52, Problem 15PIAT

Summary Introduction

To review:

The observed relationship between increased forest fragmentation and increased incidence of Lyme disease.

Introduction:

Forest fragmentation is the process of division of large habitats into smaller, divided, and isolated fragmented areas. It lowers the quality of the forest. This results in the decline in the species richness in the fragments. The white-footed mice occupy a broad ecological niche, while opossums are absent from low-quality forest fragment.

Hypothesis proposed: B. burgdorferi is the bacterium that is transferred into the body of humans by the ticks. The bacterium is an endoparasite that lives inside the human body and causes Lyme disease. The newly hatched ticks do not harbor B. burgdorferi bacterium as they are killed by the host when they crawl onto the host organism, and if they are successful in harvesting the blood from their host, then they are generally not infected by B. burgdorferi. A bar diagram showing the proportion of larval ticks that fed and caused infection versus host species is given below:

Expert Solution & Answer

Want to see the full answer?

Check out a sample textbook solution

See solution

Students have asked these similar questions

Plasmodium is a vector for mosquitos. It is a protozoan that is the causal agent of malaria, which is responsible for killing as many 855,000 people in 2013, the majority of them being children. Populations of mosquitos are strongly influenced by the availability of standing water for egg-laying and larval development. How might mosquito density, and thereby human mortality, be affected by patterns of rainfall?

Ruminants (like cattle) are herbivores but lack the necessary enzymes to digest cellulose from plants. Part of the digestive tract of ruminants contains a microbial community that can break down cellulose. These microbes gain energy from the plant material, and byproducts of their metabolism provide the host with a source of Carbon and energy. What type of symbiosis does this relationship describe?

Symbiosis is a close relationship between different species where at least one requires the other for survival. Parasitism, commensalism, and mutualism are the major types of symbiosis. Why is the relationship between Rhizobium and its host considered mutualism and not one of the other types of symbiosis?