Enemy mitigation in farmlands: Agricultural intensification negatively impacts avian nesting and subsequent ectoparasite infestation

Intensive agricultural practices directly affect farmland bird and non-target insect populations by modifying their habitats, but may also act indirectly by altering their interactions. Notably, the breeding success of insectivorous birds has been shown to suffer from reduced prey availability. Yet little is known about how agriculture influences host-parasite relationships in wild birds. How agricultural intensity affects parasites, and whether this alleviates or exacerbates the trophic stress imposed on birds therefore remains to be determined. We estimated the number of obligate hematophagous Protocalliphora blowfly larva (Diptera: Calliphoridae) that parasitized nestlings in 2,560 Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) broods along a 10,200-km{superscript 2} gradient of agricultural intensity between 2004 and 2019 in Quebec, Canada. We first modeled two key variables along the causal paths expected to affect Protocalliphora prevalence and load (abundance) within infested broods: nestling hatching date and nestling host availability. Hatching phenology varied by several days with early-spring meteorological conditions and parental age, as for nestling availability (nestling-days), which also decreased along the agriculture intensity gradient as pastures and hay fields were replaced by large-scale, cereal row crops. Nestling availability peaked under low precipitation rates when temperatures reached 18 to 25 {degrees}C. Prevalence and load of blowfly larvae directly increased with nestling availability as well as with the temperature and precipitation that occurred during the larval development and pupation stages. Controlling for nestling availability, Protocalliphora prevalence and load peaked in forested landscapes interspersed by pastures and hay fields and reached their lowest in landscapes dominated by corn and soybean monocultures with minimal tree cover. Agricultural intensity thus reduced infestation likelihood and severity both directly and indirectly, by limiting nestling host availability. This finding is notable given the documented negative effects of agricultural intensity on fledgling number and body condition in farmland birds, even after controlling for insect prey reduction. If agricultural intensity indeed reduces the parasitic pressure exerted by bird blowflies and its consequences for fledgling condition and recruitment, this suggests that other agricultural impacts (e.g., toxicological effects from pesticides) may play a larger role than previously recognized in the severe declines of farmland bird populations observed across the Holarctic. Open research statementThe data supporting this study are not yet publicly available, as they require final harmonization, documentation and anonymization prior to archiving. Upon acceptance of the manuscript, all underlying data and associated code will be permanently deposited in the Zenodo repository and made fully accessible with a DOI.