Variation in the microbiome in response to parasite, bat host, and environment

Ordination of microbiomes and PERMANOVA indicated that the parasite (i.e., parasite family and species), the host bat (i.e., bat family, bat sex, and bat individual), and the environment (i.e., region and sampling site) significantly contributed to bat fly microbiome variation (Table 2; Figure 2B and Figure S6). Other variables significantly contributed to microbiome community differentiation (i.e., bat feeding guild, bat species, protection status of sampling site, habitat patch area, and isolation), but violated PERMANOVA’s assumption of homoscedasticity. Parasite species, parasite family, bat feeding guild, bat family, bat species, and sampling site had the largest effect sizes, however many of these variables are correlated with each other.