Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Nonequilibrium and Equilibrium in Populations and Metapopulations
- Part II Nonequilibrium and Equilibrium in Communities
- 4 The paradox of the plankton
- 5 A burning issue: community stability and alternative stable states in relation to fire
- 6 Community stability and instability in ectoparasites of marine and freshwater fish
- 7 Ectoparasites of small mammals: interactive saturated and unsaturated communities
- 8 A macroecological approach to the equilibrial vs. nonequilibrial debate using bird populations and communities
- Part III Equilibrium and Nonequilibrium on Geographical Scales
- Part IV Latitudinal Gradients
- Part V Effects Due to Invading Species, Habitat Loss and Climate Change
- Part VI Autecological Studies
- Part VII An Overall View
- Index
- References
6 - Community stability and instability in ectoparasites of marine and freshwater fish
from Part II - Nonequilibrium and Equilibrium in Communities
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Nonequilibrium and Equilibrium in Populations and Metapopulations
- Part II Nonequilibrium and Equilibrium in Communities
- 4 The paradox of the plankton
- 5 A burning issue: community stability and alternative stable states in relation to fire
- 6 Community stability and instability in ectoparasites of marine and freshwater fish
- 7 Ectoparasites of small mammals: interactive saturated and unsaturated communities
- 8 A macroecological approach to the equilibrial vs. nonequilibrial debate using bird populations and communities
- Part III Equilibrium and Nonequilibrium on Geographical Scales
- Part IV Latitudinal Gradients
- Part V Effects Due to Invading Species, Habitat Loss and Climate Change
- Part VI Autecological Studies
- Part VII An Overall View
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
Marine and freshwater fish are hosts to a rich fauna of ectoparasites, living on their gills and skin feeding on blood, mucus and epithelial cells. Fish can easily be obtained and examined in large numbers. Fish ectoparasites represent a highly diverse group including monogeneans, crustaceans, isopods, mollusks and hirudineans. This makes them almost ideal objects for ecological studies. Such studies have been conducted by several researchers, using a range of host species and ecological techniques, with the aim of identifying patterns and processes in parasite communities. Studies have concentrated on different levels of community organization, i.e., those of infra-, component and compound communities, and examined questions of saturation vs. non-saturation of communities, degree of aggregation, temporal and spatial variability of organization, limiting similarity and niche segregation, host specificity, nestedness, and degree of structuring in communities as revealed by null model analyses. All these aspects are of significance in an evaluation of how common equilibrium and nonequilibrium conditions are in ecological communities, the main topic of this book. In this chapter, we provide an up-to-date account of relevant studies.
Parasite communities
Parasite communities have been commonly studied at different levels, i.e., those of infracommunity, component community and compound community (Holmes & Price, 1986). A parasite infracommunity consists of all the infrapopulations (populations of all species) within a host individual. Infracommunities are incapable of self-perpetuation (because most parasites disperse their propagules into the free environment where they usually develop before reaching a host). A parasite component community consists of all infracommunities within a host population. The boundaries for the component community depend on spatial scale (Aho & Bush, 1993). For example, one can consider a component community as (1) all parasites in all individuals of a given host species from a specific collection site of a water body, or (2) all parasites of all individuals throughout the host’s geographical distribution or of a range of host distributions for which the data were obtained.
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- Information
- The Balance of Nature and Human Impact , pp. 75 - 88Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013
References
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