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Testing the niche apportionment hypothesis with parasite communities: is random assortment always the rule?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2006

G. MUÑOZ ,
D. MOUILLOT  and
R. POULIN
G. MUÑOZ
Affiliation:
School of Molecular and Microbial Sciences, Department of Microbiology and Parasitology; University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Qld, Australia
D. MOUILLOT
Affiliation:
UMR CNRS-UMII 5119 ECOLAG, Université Montpellier II CC 093, 34095 Montpellier Cedex 5, France
R. POULIN
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand
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Abstract

Niche apportionment models have only been applied once to parasite communities. Only the random assortment model (RA), which indicates that species abundances are independent from each other and that interspecific competition is unimportant, provided a good fit to 3 out of 6 parasite communities investigated. The generality of this result needs to be validated, however. In this study we apply 5 niche apportionment models to the parasite communities of 14 fish species from the Great Barrier Reef. We determined which model fitted the data when using either numerical abundance or biomass as an estimate of parasite abundance, and whether the fit of niche apportionment models depends on how the parasite community is defined (e.g. ecto, endoparasites or all parasites considered together). The RA model provided a good fit for the whole community of parasites in 7 fish species when using biovolume (as a surrogate of biomass) as a measure of species abundance. The RA model also fitted observed data when ecto- and endoparasites were considered separately, using abundance or biovolume, but less frequently. Variation in fish sizes among species was not associated with the probability of a model fitting the data. Total numerical abundance and biovolume of parasites were not related across host species, suggesting that they capture different aspects of abundance. Biovolume is not only a better measurement to use with niche-orientated models, it should also be the preferred descriptor to analyse parasite community structure in other contexts. Most of the biological assumptions behind the RA model, i.e. randomness in apportioning niche space, lack of interspecific competition, independence of abundance among different species, and species with variable niches in changeable environments, are in accordance with some previous findings on parasite communities. Thus, parasite communities may generally be unsaturated with species, with empty niches, and interspecific interactions may generally be unimportant in determining parasite community structure.

Keywords

community structureparasite biovolumecoral reef fishniche apportionment hypothesisTokeshi's models
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 132 , Issue 5 , May 2006 , pp. 717 - 724
Copyright
2006 Cambridge University Press

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