Data from: Habitat and seasonal drivers of leukocyte profiles within and across Neotropical bat species
Data files
Sep 05, 2025 version files 45.85 KB
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Becker_et_al._2025_BZ2122_hematology.csv
43.38 KB
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README.md
2.47 KB
Sep 15, 2025 version files 59.86 KB
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Becker_et_al_2025_Biology_Letters.R
12.78 KB
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Becker_et_al._2025_BZ2122_hematology.csv
43.38 KB
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BZ_bat_tree.tre
655 B
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README.md
3.05 KB
Abstract
Land conversion is a dominant form of environmental change that can alter infection dynamics in wildlife by affecting host immune defense. Such effects may be compounded by seasonal variation in resources and reproduction and vary among members of a host community, yet the combined effects of habitat, season, and species identity on wildlife immunity remain poorly understood. We tested within- and across-species effects of land conversion and seasonality on immunity in Neotropical bats by quantifying hematological markers of physiological stress and inflammation. We sampled seven species across a large preserve and a smaller forest fragment in northern Belize during both the dry and wet seasons. Using phylogenetic generalized linear mixed models, we tested the overall effects of habitat and season and quantified per-species impacts. Total white blood cell counts and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratios showed no overall habitat or seasonal effects but displayed strong species-specific responses. In contrast, the systemic inflammation response index increased across all species in the dry season and smaller fragments, suggesting general poor health in unfavorable conditions. Species-specific effects did not align with dietary guilds, indicating roles for finer-scale ecological traits. Our findings highlight the complex, species-dependent effects of environmental change on wildlife's immune defense.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.d51c5b0g2
Description of the data and file structure
These data include hematology values from multiple bat species in Belize over two seasons and two sites. Alongside raw data, we also provide the pruned phylogeny (BZ_bat_tree) of 7 bat species and the R script (Becker_et_al_2025_Biology_Letters) to reproduce the primary analyses (phylogenetic generalized linear mixed models).
Files and variables
File: Becker_et_al._2025_BZ2122_hematology.csv
Description:
Variables
- BZID: unique identifier for each individual bat
- date: date of bat capture
- site: site of capture in Belize (Lamanai Archeological Reserve vs Ka'Kabish)
- fyear: factor year of capture (2021, 2022)
- species: bat species name
- label: bat species name matching to the Upham et al. 2019 taxonomy/phylogeny
- family: bat taxonomic family
- twbc: average number of white blood cells across 10 fields of view at 400X magnification
- n: percent neutrophils derived from a differential white blood cell count
- l: percent lymphocytes derived from a differential white blood cell count
- m: percent monocytes derived from a differential white blood cell count
- e: percent eosinophils derived from a differential white blood cell count
- b: percent basophils derived from a differential white blood cell count
- nl: ratio of neutrophils to lymphocytes (NL ratio), defined as %N / %L
- siri: systemic inflammation response index (SIRI), defined as (%N * %M) / %L
- ltwbc: log10-transformed total white blood cell count (adding the non-zero min prior to transformation)
- lnl: log10-transformed NL ratio
- lsiri: log10-transformed SIRI (adding the non-zero min prior to transformation)
- sex: individual bat sex, coded as male (M) or female (F)
- rep: reclassified individual bat reproductive status, coded as yes (Y) or no (N)
- age: reclassified individual bat age, coded as juvenile/subadult (JSA) or adult (A)
- ltime: log10-transformed holding time, defined as hours between capture and blood collection
- rp: raw reproductive status, coded as yes (Y) or no (N) for males and lactating (L), pregnant (P), or no (N) for females
- ag: raw age, coded as juvenile (J), subadult (SA), or adult (A)
- missing: which columns were imputed (NA means no imputation)
Access information
Other publicly accessible locations of the data:
- NA
Data was derived from the following sources:
- Taxonomic classifications and phylogeny follow Upham et al. 2019: https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000494
- BZ bat tree.tre was derived from the Upham et al. 2019 mammalian phylogeny using ape in R
Version changes
9/12/2025: Added mammal phylogeny pruned to the included bat species (BZ bat tree.tre) and R script to reproduce primary analyses (Becker_et_al_2025_Biology_Letters.R)