Increased Attalea butyracea palm propagation, notable for its role as key habitat for the primary Chagas disease vector in Panama, has been linked to landscape disturbance in single-palm observations in this region. Close proximity of these palms to human dwellings is proposed to increase risk of Chagas disease transmission from sylvatic transmission cycles to domestic transmission involving human populations. This study examines the relationship between landscape disturbance and mature A. butyracea spatial distribution, density, and proximity to human populations and vector and reservoir species’ movement corridors at a regional scale in a 300 km2 heterogeneous tropical landscape in central Panama. We remotely identified the locations of over 50,000 mature A. butyracea palms using high-resolution WorldView2 satellite imagery. A local Getis-Ord Gi* spatial analysis identified significant clusters of aggregated palms. Associations between palm and cluster abundance and a landscape disturbance gradient, derived from official Panama land cover data, were tested using Chi-square tests for Homogeneity and Z-test for proportions. Kruskall-Wallis non-parametric analysis of variance tests were run to assess whether palm cluster area varied by disturbance level, or whether disturbance was associated with proximity of palms and palm clusters to susceptible populations or vector movement corridors. Our findings indicate a regional relationship between landscape disturbance and A. butyracea occurrence. We observe a significant increase in both individual and clustered A. butyracea in secondary forest, but a reduction of palms in agricultural settings. We do not detect evidence of any reduction in abundance of palms in residential settings. The majority of residential and commercial buildings in our study area are within vector flight distance of potential vector habitat in palm crowns. We observe probable anthropogenic elimination of A. butyracea palms in agricultural, but not residential, settings. Even in heavily deforested regions, significant concentrations of mature palms remain in close proximity to human establishments.

中文翻译：

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景观干扰对巴拿马中部 Attalea butyracea 棕榈分布的影响


Attalea butyracea 棕榈繁殖的增加以其作为巴拿马主要恰加斯病媒介的主要栖息地的作用而闻名，与该地区单棕榈观测中的景观干扰有关。建议将这些棕榈树靠近人类住所，以增加恰加斯病从森林传播周期到涉及人群的家庭传播的风险。本研究探讨了巴拿马中部 300 平方公里的异质热带景观中景观扰动与成熟丁酸菌空间分布、密度以及与人类种群的接近度以及媒介和储存物种在区域尺度上的移动廊道之间的关系。我们使用高分辨率 WorldView2 卫星图像远程识别了 50,000 多棵成熟的丁香棕榈树的位置。当地的 Getis-Ord Gi* 空间分析发现了重要的聚集棕榈树丛。棕榈树和簇丰度与景观扰动梯度之间的关联（源自巴拿马官方土地覆盖数据）使用同质性卡方检验和比例 Z 检验进行了测试。进行 Kruskall-Wallis 非参数方差分析测试来评估棕榈丛面积是否因干扰水平而变化，或者干扰是否与棕榈和棕榈丛与易受影响群体或媒介移动走廊的接近程度有关。我们的研究结果表明景观干扰与丁酸菌发生之间存在区域关系。我们观察到次生林中丁香酸单株和群生的数量显着增加，但农业环境中棕榈树的数量却有所减少。我们没有发现住宅区棕榈树数量减少的证据。 我们研究区域的大多数住宅和商业建筑都位于棕榈树冠潜在病媒栖息地的病媒飞行距离内。我们观察到农业环境中丁香棕榈树可能被人为消灭，但住宅环境中却没有。即使在森林砍伐严重的地区，成熟棕榈树的大量集中仍然靠近人类活动场所。