COVER LETTER
On behalf of all coauthors, I am submitting a manuscript titled
‘Habitat-specific variation in bacterial loads of wooden nest
boxes in the pre-breeding period’ for possible publication in Ecology
and Evolution. The manuscript is new, approved by all coauthors, and is
not considered for publication elsewhere. This study is a research
article and is a continuation of our previous work (Zabłotni, A.,
Kaliński, A., Bańbura, M., Glądalski, M., Markowski, M., Skwarska, J.,
Wawrzyniak, J., & Bańbura, J. (2020). Experimental nest replacement
suggests that the bacterial load of nests may mediate nestling
physiological condition in cavity nesting Great Tits (Parus
major ). Journal of Ornithology , 161, 819-828) on the influence
of bacterial loads on hole-nesting passerines. This study presents
observed differences in bacterial loads in nest boxes located in two
distinct habitats: urban parkland and natural forest. We showed that the
bacterial load was on average higher in the nest boxes at the forest
study site. We assume that this result is related to differences between
habitats, including the composition of plant species in parkland and
forest. We also showed that the presence of the nest in the nest box in
the previous season positively affected the bacterial load, but only in
the forest area. The results presented are relatively novel and
supplement our understanding of the factors that potentially can affect
the breeding performance of birds using artificial nest boxes with a new
dimension related to microorganism-host interactions. Therefore, we
consider Ecology and Evolution to be the most appropriate journal to
publish the findings.