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Skin and fur bacterial diversity and community structure on American southwestern bats: effects of habitat, geography and bat traits

Overview of attention for article published in PeerJ, October 2017
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (85th percentile)
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (74th percentile)

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1 blog
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11 X users

Citations

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Title
Skin and fur bacterial diversity and community structure on American southwestern bats: effects of habitat, geography and bat traits
Published in
PeerJ, October 2017
DOI 10.7717/peerj.3944
Pubmed ID
Authors

Ara S. Winter, Jennifer J.M. Hathaway, Jason C. Kimble, Debbie C. Buecher, Ernest W. Valdez, Andrea Porras-Alfaro, Jesse M. Young, Kaitlyn J.H. Read, Diana E. Northup

Abstract

Microorganisms that reside on and in mammals, such as bats, have the potential to influence their host's health and to provide defenses against invading pathogens. However, we have little understanding of the skin and fur bacterial microbiota on bats, or factors that influence the structure of these communities. The southwestern United States offers excellent sites for the study of external bat bacterial microbiota due to the diversity of bat species, the variety of abiotic and biotic factors that may govern bat bacterial microbiota communities, and the lack of the newly emergent fungal disease in bats, white-nose syndrome (WNS), in the southwest. To test these variables, we used 16S rRNA gene 454 pyrosequencing from swabs of external skin and fur surfaces from 163 bats from 13 species sampled from southeastern New Mexico to northwestern Arizona. Community similarity patterns, random forest models, and generalized linear mixed-effects models show that factors such as location (e.g., cave-caught versus surface-netted) and ecoregion are major contributors to the structure of bacterial communities on bats. Bats caught in caves had a distinct microbial community compared to those that were netted on the surface. Our results provide a first insight into the distribution of skin and fur bat bacteria in the WNS-free environment of New Mexico and Arizona. More importantly, it provides a baseline of bat external microbiota that can be explored for potential natural defenses against pathogens.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 11 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 60 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 60 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 13 22%
Student > Ph. D. Student 11 18%
Student > Bachelor 9 15%
Student > Master 7 12%
Professor > Associate Professor 3 5%
Other 6 10%
Unknown 11 18%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 21 35%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 6 10%
Engineering 4 7%
Medicine and Dentistry 3 5%
Veterinary Science and Veterinary Medicine 2 3%
Other 10 17%
Unknown 14 23%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 14. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 03 November 2017.
All research outputs
#2,347,985
of 23,577,654 outputs
Outputs from PeerJ
#2,610
of 13,832 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#47,577
of 329,631 outputs
Outputs of similar age from PeerJ
#95
of 377 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,577,654 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 90th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 13,832 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 17.2. This one has done well, scoring higher than 81% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 329,631 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 85% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 377 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 74% of its contemporaries.