Parasite biodiversity and its determinants in coastal marine teleost fishes of Brazil

Abstract

Recent studies of the forces behind the diversification of parasite assemblages have shed light on many aspects of parasite biodiversity. By using only parasite species richness as their measure of diversity, however, previous investigations have ignored the relatedness among parasite species and the taxonomic structure of the assemblages, which contain much information about their evolutionary origins. Here, we performed a comparative analysis across 50 species of fish from the coast of Brazil ; we evaluated the effects of several host traits (body size, social behaviour, feeding habits, preference for benthic vs. pelagic habitats, depth range, and ability to enter brackish waters) on the diversity of their assemblages of metazoan parasites. As measures of diversity, we used parasite species richness, as well as the average taxonomic distinctness of the assemblage and its variance ; the latter measures are based on the average taxonomic distance between any two parasite species in an assemblage. Unlike parasite species richness, taxonomic distinctness was unaffected by the number of host individuals examined per species. Fish body length proved to be the main predictor of parasite species richness, even when controlling for the confounding influences of host phylogeny and sampling effort, although it did not correlate with measures of parasite taxonomic distinctness. Predatory fish also had higher parasite species richness than planktivores, but this trend could not be confirmed using phylogenetically independent contrasts between host taxa. The main host feature associated with the taxonomic diversity of parasites was schooling behaviour, with schooling fish having more taxonomically diverse parasite assemblages than those of their non-schooling relatives. When focusing on endoparasite species only, both predatory feeding habits and a broad depth range were associated with the taxonomic distinctness of parasites. Our results suggest that certain host traits (i.e. body size) determine how many parasite species a host can accumulate over evolutionary time, whereas different host features influence the processes causing the taxonomic diversification of parasite assemblages.

Parasites of the Mutton Snapper Lutjanus analis (Perciformes: Lutjanidae) in Alagoas, Brazil

“…Fish size and feeding habits tend to be good predictors of the species richness of parasite assemblages (LUQUE et al, 2004). In particular, carnivorous fishes tend to be associated with greater diversity of endoparasites, which they acquire from their prey (LUQUE et al, 2004).…”

Structure of the parasite infracommunity of Sciades proops from the Japaratuba River Estuary, Sergipe, Brazil

“…The study of the characteristics of parasitic infection in fish, in conjunction with the analysis of the structure of the parasite community and the use of ecological parameters, such as species richness and diversity measures, provide input for future work on the monitoring and evaluation of environmental health in aquatic ecosystems and help to expand the knowledge base on parasite-host relationships (Schmidt et al, 2003a, b;Luque et al, 2004).…”

Community ecology of the metazoan parasites of the Indian mackerel Rastrelliger kanagurta (Scombridae) from the coast of Visakhapatnam, Bay of Bengal

“…During the last one decade, several studies have investigated the determinants of species diversity in parasite communities of marine fish (Sasal et al 1997;Morand, 2000;Luque et al 2004). All the studies have attempted to explain parasite species richness as the product of external environmental factors and host traits.…”