What question did this study set out to answer?

To review the evolutionary and ecological mechanisms determining parasite species richness across hierarchical scales, from individual hosts to entire geographic ranges.

November 1, 1997Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics

Species Richness of Parasite Assemblages: Evolution and Patterns

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Authors

RPRobert PoulinLinköping University

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Implication

Ecological review reveals scale-dependent drivers of parasite diversity across host hierarchies, indicating that structuring processes weaken from broad geographical faunas to individual hosts.

Key Points

To review the evolutionary and ecological mechanisms determining parasite species richness across hierarchical scales, from individual hosts to entire geographic ranges.
Synthesized published data on species-area relationships relating host body size and geographic range to parasite species richness.
Assessed community organization across three nested hierarchical levels: host species faunas, population-level component communities, and individual-host infracommunities.
Evaluated the impact of statistical controls for sampling effort, phylogenetic relatedness, and null model comparisons on observed richness patterns.
Species-area correlations between host traits and parasite richness weaken substantially when adjusting for unequal sampling effort and host phylogeny.
Component communities frequently exhibit saturation, with species richness dictated by local colonization probability and parasite availability rather than overall host fauna richness.
Infracommunity structure generally does not deviate from random assembly, showing that deterministic community structuring becomes progressively less detectable at smaller ecological scales.

Cite This Study

Robert Poulin (1997) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/69da21d8ba6014a02e835ca7 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.28.1.341

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November 1, 1997Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics

Species Richness of Parasite Assemblages: Evolution and Patterns

View Full Paper

Ask AI

Bookmark

Authors

RPRobert PoulinLinköping University

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Ecological review reveals scale-dependent drivers of parasite diversity across host hierarchies, indicating that structuring processes weaken from broad geographical faunas to individual hosts.

Key Points

To review the evolutionary and ecological mechanisms determining parasite species richness across hierarchical scales, from individual hosts to entire geographic ranges.
Synthesized published data on species-area relationships relating host body size and geographic range to parasite species richness.
Assessed community organization across three nested hierarchical levels: host species faunas, population-level component communities, and individual-host infracommunities.
Evaluated the impact of statistical controls for sampling effort, phylogenetic relatedness, and null model comparisons on observed richness patterns.
Species-area correlations between host traits and parasite richness weaken substantially when adjusting for unequal sampling effort and host phylogeny.
Component communities frequently exhibit saturation, with species richness dictated by local colonization probability and parasite availability rather than overall host fauna richness.
Infracommunity structure generally does not deviate from random assembly, showing that deterministic community structuring becomes progressively less detectable at smaller ecological scales.

Cite This Study

Robert Poulin (1997) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/69da21d8ba6014a02e835ca7 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.28.1.341

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