ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY Long-Term Spatiotemporal Stability and Dynamic Changes in the Haemoparasite Community of Bank Voles (Myodes

Abstract Long-term field studies on parasite communities are rare but provide a powerful insight into the ecological and evolutionary processes shaping host–parasite interactions. The aim of our study was to identify the principal factors regulating long-term trends in the haemoparasite communities of bank voles, and to this end, we sampled three semi-isolated populations of bank voles (n=880) in 1999, 2002, 2006 and 2010 in theMazury lake district region of NE Poland. Overall, 90.8 % of the bank voles harboured at least one of the species of haemoparasites studied. Whilst overall prevalence (all spe-cies combined) did not vary significantly between the surveys, different temporal changes were detected among voles in each of the three sites. In voles from Urwitałt, prevalence increased consistently with successive surveys, whereas in Tałty, the peak years were 2002 and 2006, and in Pilchy, prevalenc