Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T05:39:57.142Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Temporal and spatial patterns of nestedness in eel macroparasite communities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2004

J. NORTON ,
J. W. LEWIS  and
D. ROLLINSON
J. NORTON
Affiliation:
School of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX Wolfson Wellcome Biomedical Laboratories, Department of Zoology, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD
J. W. LEWIS
Affiliation:
School of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX
D. ROLLINSON
Affiliation:
Wolfson Wellcome Biomedical Laboratories, Department of Zoology, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A nested (non-random) species composition was observed among the intestinal macroparasite communities of European eels, Anguilla anguilla. Nestedness was observed in 8 out of 10 component community samples from the rivers Thames and Test between April 2000 and October 2001. Parasite component communities consisted of mainly generalist and specialist, but also accidental species, and included acanthocephalans, cestodes, nematodes and digeneans. Nestedness was observed when component population size differed markedly between all or most parasite species, but not when the majority of species present was similarly abundant. Nestedness could not be explained in terms of host weight, log normal distribution of parasite species, or mean intensity of infection. It is proposed that nestedness occurred as a result of a sufficiently graded abundance between parasite species, which was established early in the year by colonization processes.

Keywords

eelAnguilla anguillainfracommunitycomponent communitymacroparasitenestedness
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 129 , Issue 2 , August 2004 , pp. 203 - 211
Copyright
2004 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

ATMAR, W. & PATTERSON, B. D. ( 1993). The measure of order and disorder in the distribution of species in fragmented habitat. Oecologia 96, 373–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BUSH, A. O., LAFFERTY, K. D., LOTZ, J. M. & SHOSTAK, A. W. ( 1997). Parasitology meets ecology on its own terms: Margolis et al. revisited. Journal of Parasitology 83, 575–583.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
COOK, R. R. & QUINN, J. F. ( 1995). The influence of colonization in nested species subsets. Oecologia 102, 413–424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
COOK, R. R. & QUINN, J. F. ( 1998). An evaluation of randomization models for nested species subsets analysis. Oecologia 113, 584–592.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FISCHER, J. & LINDENMAYER, D. B. ( 2002). Treating the nestedness calculator as a ‘black box’ can lead to false conclusions. Oikos 99, 193–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FLEISHMAN, E. & MURPHY, D. D. ( 1999). Patterns and processes of nestedness in a Great Basin butterfly community. Oecologia 119, 133–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FOWLER, J. & COHEN, L. ( 1990). Practical Statistics for Field Biology. Open University Press.
GUÉGAN, J. F. & HUGUENY, B. ( 1994). A nested species subset pattern in tropical fish: host as major determinant of parasite infracommunity structure. Oecologia 100, 184–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
KENNEDY, C. R. ( 1990). Helminth communities in freshwater fish: structured communities or stochastic assemblages? In Parasite Communities: Patterns and Processes (ed. Esch, G. W., Bush, A. O. & Aho, J. M. ), pp. 131–156. Chapman and Hall, London.
KENNEDY, C. R. ( 1993). The dynamics of intestinal helminth communities in eels Anguilla anguilla in a small stream: long term changes in richness and structure. Parasitology 107, 71–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
KENNEDY, C. R. & GUEGAN, J.-F. ( 1996). The number of niches in intestinal helminth communities of Anguilla anguilla: are there enough spaces for parasites? Parasitology 113, 293–302.Google Scholar
KURIS, A. M., BLAUSTEIN, A. R. & ALIÓ, J. J. ( 1980). Hosts as islands. American Naturalist 116, 570–586.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MATEJUSOVÁ, I., MORAND, S. & GELNAR, M. ( 2000). Nestedness in assemblages of gyrodactylids (Monogenea: Gyrodactylidea) parasitising two species of cyprinid – with reference to generalists and specialists. International Journal for Parasitology 30, 1153–1158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NORTON, J., LEWIS, J. W. & ROLLINSON, D. ( 2003). Parasite infracommunity diversity in eels: a reflection of local component community diversity. Parasitology 127, 475–482.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PATTERSON, B. D. ( 1990). On the temporal development of nested subset patterns of species composition. Oikos 59, 330–342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PATTERSON, B. D. & ATMAR, W. ( 1986). Nested subsets and the structure of insular mammalian faunas and archipelagos. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 28, 65–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
POULIN, R. ( 1996). Richness, nestedness, and randomness in parasite infracommunity structure. Oecologia 105, 545–551.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
POULIN, R. ( 1998). Evolutionary Ecology of Parasites. Chapman and Hall, London.
POULIN, R. & GUÉGAN, J.-F. ( 2000). Nestedness, anti-nestedness, and the relationship between prevalence and intensity in ectoparasite assemblages of marine fish: a spatial model of species coexistence. International Journal for Parasitology 30, 1147–1152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
POULIN, R. & VALTONEN, E. T. ( 2001). Nested assemblages resulting from host size variation: the case of endoparasite communities in fish hosts. International Journal for Parasitology 31, 1194–1204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
POULIN, R. & VALTONEN, E. T. ( 2002). The predictability of helmith community structure in space: a comparison of fish populations from adjacent lakes. International Journal for Parasitology 32, 1235–1243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ROHDE, K., WORTHEN, W. B., HEAP, M., HUGUENY, B. & GUÉGAN, J.-F. ( 1998). Nestedness in assemblages of metazoan ecto- and endoparasites of marine fish. International Journal for Parasitology 28, 543–549.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
šIMKOVÁ, A., GELNAR, M. & MORAND, S. ( 2001). Order and disorder in ectoparasite communities: the case of congeneric gill monogeneans (Dactylogyrus spp.). International Journal for Parasitology 31, 1205–1210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
VIDAL-MARTINEZ, V. M. & POULIN, R. ( 2003). Spatial and temporal repeatability in parasite community structure of tropical fish hosts. Parasitology 127, 387–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WRIGHT, D. H. & REEVES, J. H. ( 1992). On the meaning and measurement of nestedness of species assemblages. Oecologia 92, 416–428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WRIGHT, D. H., PATTERSON, B. D., MIKKELSON, G. R., CUTLER, A. & ATMAR, W. ( 1998). A comparative analysis of nested subset patterns of species composition. Oecologia 113, 1–20.Google Scholar