关键词:
FLEAS
MITES
PARASITES
MAMMALS
PARASITIFORMES
摘要:
We asked whether (a) variation in species composition of parasite assemblages on the same host species follows a non-random pattern and (b) if so, manifestation of this non-randomness across space and time differs among parasites, hosts and scales. We assessed nestedness and its contribution to beta-diversity of fleas and gamasid mite assemblages exploiting small mammals across three scales: (a) within the same region across different locations;(b) within the same location across different times and (c) across distinct geographic regions. We estimated (a) the degree of nestedness (N-COL) and (b) the proportional contribution of nestedness to the total amount of beta-diversity across locations, times and regions (beta(NESP)). In the majority of host species, parasite assemblages were nested significantly across all three scales. In mites, but not fleas, N-COL correlated with the contribution of nestedness to the total amount of beta-diversity. In fleas, N-COL did not differ among assemblages at the two local scales, but was significantly lower at regional scale. In mites, N-COL was the highest in assemblages at local spatial scale. beta(NESP) was significantly higher (a) in flea than in mite assemblages at both local scales and (b) in mite than in flea assemblages at regional scale. In fleas, beta(NESP) was higher at both local scales, whereas in mites it was higher at both local temporal and regional scales. Sheltering habits and geographic range of a host species did not affect either N-COL or beta(NESP) in flea assemblages, but both metrics significantly decreased with an increase of geographic range of a host species in mite assemblages. We conclude that flea and mite assemblages across host populations at smaller and larger spatial scales and at temporal scale were characterized by nestedness which, in turn, contributed to an important degree to the total amount of beta-diversity of these assemblages.