Spatial and temporal turnover of parasite species and parasite-host interactions: a case study with fleas and gamasid mites parasitic on small mammals.

Abstract

We studied patterns of ectoparasite species turnover and pairwise ectoparasite-host interactions across space and time in fleas and mites harboured by small mammals using a novel metric, zeta diversity (similarity between multiple communities). We asked whether the zeta diversity of parasites and their interactions with hosts follow a similar spatial or temporal trend. We found substantial differences in some (zeta decline and retention rate) but not in other (zeta decay) spatial patterns of zeta diversity between species and interactions, whereas the differences between the patterns of the temporal species versus interaction zeta diversity occurred to a much lesser extent. In particular, the parametric form of zeta decline suggested that the distribution of ectoparasite species across localities is driven mainly by niche-based processes, whereas the spatial distribution of flea-host and mite-host interactions is predominantly stochastic. We also found much stronger variation in the number of shared species and interactions over space than over time. Parasite community composition, in terms of species, appeared to be much more temporally stable than that in terms of parasite-host interactions. The parametric form of temporal zeta decline indicated that both parasite communities and parasite-host networks are assembled over time via niche-based processes.