In order to manage or predict infectious disease response to anthropogenic disturbance, it is essential to understand how pathogen transmission is affected by changes in local abiotic and biotic conditions. The objective of this study is to investigate how anthropogenic land use influences microclimate and species communities in central Panama and address how these changes collectively affect the Chagas disease vector Rhodnius pallescens and infection with the etiological parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. The vector R. pallescens is associated with the ubiquitous palm, Attalea butyracea, and transmits T. cruzi across domestic and sylvatic mammalian host, including humans. The risk of Chagas disease increases in areas of anthropogenic disturbance, yet underlying mechanisms require further investigation and may be related to altered microclimate and species communities within the Attalea palm. The key hypotheses of the study are 1) palm crown species community composition, structure, and function are impacted by land use change and disturbed communities have a higher instance of generalist, disturbance tolerant species, and 2) R. pallescens abundance and infection are driven by communities that have a decrease in habitat sensitive, invertebrate predator species and are sustained by resilient vertebrate hosts (particularly mammals). This study was conducted throughout central and west-central Panama across the disturbance gradient pasture, peridomestic, and forest fragment. A total of 1098 R. pallescens individuals were collected from 106 Attalea palms and 490 individuals were tested for T. cruzi. Blood meal analysis was conducted on 240 individuals. Forty-nine palm crown communities were sampled, and 2952 specimens were captured and identified. Food web networks of the palm crown community were created using network software from blood meal and community survey data and combined with microclimate conditions. A generalized mixed effects model was conducted to determine the abiotic and bioticdrivers of both R. pallescens abundance and infection with T. cruzi. Results indicate disturbance does alter communities via shifts in community structure and function which both directly and indirectly influences R. pallescens abundance and infection with T. cruzi. These results demonstrate that community-level characteristics are a contributing factor to variations in multi-host vector-borne pathogen transmission, particularly in response to land use changes.
