Bordes F, Morand S
Institut des Sciences de l'évolution, CNRS-UM2, CCO65, Université de Montpellier 2, 34095 Montpellier, France.
Parasitology. 2008 Dec;135(14):1701-5. doi: 10.1017/S0031182008005040. Epub 2008 Nov 10.
Studies investigating parasite diversity have shown substantial geographical variation in parasite species richness. Most of these studies have, however, adopted a local scale approach, which may have masked more general patterns. Recent studies have shown that ectoparasite species richness in mammals seems highly repeatable among populations of the same mammal host species at a regional scale. In light of these new studies we have reinvestigated the case of parasitic helminths by using a large data set of parasites from mammal populations in 3 continents. We collected homogeneous data and demonstrated that helminth species richness is highly repeatable in mammals at a regional scale. Our results highlight the strong influence of host identity in parasite species richness and call for future research linking helminth species found in a given host to its ecology, immune defences and potential energetic trade-offs.
对寄生虫多样性的研究表明，寄生虫物种丰富度存在显著的地理差异。然而，这些研究大多采用局部尺度方法，这可能掩盖了更普遍的模式。最近的研究表明，在区域尺度上，同一哺乳动物宿主物种的种群中，哺乳动物体外寄生虫物种丰富度似乎具有高度的可重复性。鉴于这些新研究，我们利用来自三大洲哺乳动物种群的大量寄生虫数据集，重新研究了寄生蠕虫的情况。我们收集了同类数据，并证明在区域尺度上，哺乳动物体内蠕虫物种丰富度具有高度的可重复性。我们的研究结果突出了宿主身份对寄生虫物种丰富度的强烈影响，并呼吁未来开展研究，将特定宿主中发现的蠕虫物种与其生态、免疫防御及潜在的能量权衡联系起来。
