Abstract
The helminth fauna and metacommunity structure of eight sympatric sigmodontine rodents were investigated at the Serra dos Órgãos National Park, an Atlantic Forest reserve located in the State of Rio de Janeiro, southeast Brazil. Rodents of the species Abrawayaomys ruschii, Akodon montensis, Blarinomys breviceps , Delomys dorsalis, Oligoryzomys flavescens, Oligoryzomys nigripes, Oxymycterus quaestor and Thaptomys nigrita were found infected with helminths. Akodon montensis presented the highest total helminth species richness, with six different species of helminths. The nematode Stilestrongylus lanfrediae was the most abundant and prevalent helminth species observed. The host-parasite network analysis showed little interactions among host species. Akodon montensis seems to act as a keystone-species in the rodent community. This species shared the nematodes Stilestrongylus aculeata with A. ruschii and Protospirura numidica criceticola with T. nigrita, and the cestode Rodentolepis akodontis with D. dorsalis. The congeners host species O. flavescens and O. nigripes shared the nematodes Guerrerostrongylus zetta and S. lanfrediae. The rodents B. breviceps and O. quaestor did not share any helminths with other hosts. The helminth metacommunity showed a random pattern on both infracommunity and component community levels, indicating different responses by each helminth species to the environmental gradient.
Highlights
Parasites have important ecological roles in ecosystems because they affect the fitness of their hosts, promote changes in their physiology and population dynamics, regulate host populations, mediate competition and predation, and influence diversity through a cascade effect (POULIN, 2007)
The helminth fauna and metacommunity structure of eight sympatric sigmodontine rodents were investigated at the Serra dos Órgãos National Park, an Atlantic Forest reserve located in the State of Rio de Janeiro, southeast Brazil
Eight species of sigmodontine rodents were infected with helminths: Abrawayaomys ruschii Cunha & Cruz, 1979 (n = 2), Akodon montensis Thomas, 1913 (n = 62), Blarinomys breviceps (Winge, 1887) (n = 4), Delomys dorsalis (Hensel, 1872) (n = 8), Oligoryzomys flavescens (Waterhouse, 1837) (n = 2), Oligoryzomys nigripes (Olfers, 1818) (n = 43), Oxymycterus quaestor Thomas, 1903 (n = 4) and Thaptomys nigrita (Lichtenstein, 1829) (n = 4) (Rodentia: Cricetidae)
Summary
Parasites have important ecological roles in ecosystems because they affect the fitness of their hosts, promote changes in their physiology and population dynamics, regulate host populations, mediate competition and predation, and influence diversity through a cascade effect (POULIN, 2007). The occurrence and distribution of parasites in host populations depend on several factors that include host and parasite attributes, such as phylogenetic relationships, host behavior, susceptibility to parasites (BROUAT et al, 2007; WOLINSKA & KING, 2009), as well as characteristics of the environment such as seasonality and habitat (WOLINSKA & KING, 2009; SIMÕES et al, 2010; CASTRO et al, 2017) Due to their biological and ecological features, rodents and helminths are a good model for ecological studies of host-parasite interactions in different ecosystems Many helminth species have complex life cycles in which rodents act as intermediate and / or definitive hosts (CHAISIRI et al, 2017)
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