Functional and phylogenetic uniqueness of helminth and flea assemblages of two South African rodents. Issue 10 (September 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Krasnov, Boris R.; Spickett, Andrea; Junker, Kerstin; van der Mescht, Luther; Matthee, Sonja
• Is Part Of: International journal for parasitology. Volume 51:Issue 10(2021)
• Page Start: 865
• Page End: 876
• Publication Date: 2021-09
• Subjects: Fleas -- Helminths -- Uniqueness -- Redundancy; Parasitology -- Periodicals; Parasitology -- Periodicals; Parasitologie -- Périodiques; Parasitology; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 571.999
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2021.02.003
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0020-7519

Abstract

Graphical abstract: Highlights: Functional and phylogenetic alpha-uniqueness of flea assemblages differed between social and solitary host species. Functional or phylogenetic beta-uniqueness of helminth or flea communities did not differ between host species. Phylogenetic, but not functional, alpha-uniqueness of helminth assemblages correlated with parasite prevalence. Abstract: The loss of a particular species from a community may have different effects on its functioning, depending on the presence or absence of functionally similar or phylogenetically close species in that community (redundancy). Redundancy is thus defined as the fraction of species diversity not expressed by functional or phylogenetic diversity. We assessed functional and phylogenetic alpha- and beta-redundancy in helminth and flea assemblages of two species of South African rodents, Rhabdomys dilectus and Rhabdomys pumilio, using community uniqueness as the inverse indicator of redundancy. We asked whether patterns of functional and phylogenetic alpha- and beta-uniqueness differed between (i) parasite groups (endo- versus ectoparasites), (ii) host species within parasite groups, and (iii) biomes within host species. We found differences between the two hosts in the functional and phylogenetic alpha-uniqueness (but not beta-uniqueness) of flea, but not helminth, assemblages. Significant correlations between the alpha-uniqueness of parasite assemblages and the total parasite prevalence were found only for phylogenetic uniqueness and only in helminths. Pairwise site-by-site dissimilarities in uniqueness (beta-uniqueness) and pairwise dissimilarity in prevalence were significantly associated (positively) in helminths but not in fleas. A between-biome difference in functional (but not phylogenetic) alpha-uniqueness was found in both helminth and flea assemblages harboured by R. pumilio . We conclude that the resilience of parasite assemblages in terms of the effect on hosts depends not only on their transmission strategy but also on traits of host species and environmental factors.