Environmental drivers of Ixodes ricinus abundance in forest fragments of rural European landscapes.
Steffen EhrmannJaan LiiraStefanie GärtnerKarin HansenJörg BrunetSara A O CousinsMarc DeconchatGuillaume DecocqPieter De FrennePallieter De SmedtMartin DiekmannEmilie Gallet-MoronAnnette KolbJonathan LenoirJessica LindgrenTobias NaafTaavi PaalAlicia ValdésKris VerheyenMonika WulfMichael Scherer-LorenzenPublished in: BMC ecology (2017)
Our findings suggest that the ecosystem disservices of tick-borne diseases, via the abundance of ticks, strongly depends on habitat properties and thus on how humans manage ecosystems from the scale of the microhabitat to the landscape. This study stresses the need to further evaluate the interaction between climate change and ecosystem management on I. ricinus abundance.