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Figure 4 | BMC Ecology

Figure 4

From: Gastrointestinal helminths may affect host susceptibility to anthrax through seasonal immune trade-offs

Figure 4

Monthly rainfall patterns and zebra rainfall experience in sampling seasons. A. Mean (± SE) monthly Okaukuejo rainfall from 1974-2010. This encompasses the start of the most reliable anthrax sampling in ENP through the years of the current project (2008-2010). B. Cumulative rainfall 2 months prior to each zebra capture (Rain2), for all captures over all seasons. The total rainfall in the 60 days prior to capture was determined for each individual zebra capture event, and that number was assigned to that individual-capture as its associated rainfall amount. While we sampled animals in nominally "wet" or "dry" seasons, we saw a clear bimodal pattern in rainfall amounts that did not necessarily align with seasons. This is particularly noticeable in gray bars: Rain2 experienced by animals sampled in the nominal wet season. We therefore used rainfall amounts to assign each individual-capture to a rain season: “wet season,” the high rainfall group, containing individuals that had experienced ≥ 200 mm rainfall two months prior to sampling; and “dry season,” the low rainfall group, containing individual samplings connected with ≤ 100 mm rainfall in the two months prior. Black bars: Rain2 experienced by animals sampled in the nominal dry season.

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