Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, 8499000 Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel.
Wyler Department of Dryland Agriculture, French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, 8499000 Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel.
Parasitology. 2022 Sep;149(11):1450-1459. doi: 10.1017/S0031182022000907. Epub 2022 Jul 5.
We used data on the species composition of regional assemblages of fleas and their small mammalian hosts from 6 biogeographic realms and applied a novel method of step-down factor analyses (SDFA) and cluster analyses to identify biogeographic (across the entire globe) and ecological (within a realm across the main terrestrial biomes) clusters of these assemblages. We found that, at the global scale, the clusters of regional assemblage loadings on SDFA axes reflected well the assemblage distribution, according to the biogeographic realms to which they belong. At the global scale, the cluster topology, corresponding to the biogeographic realms, was similar between flea and host assemblages, but the topology of subtrees within realm-specific clusters substantially differed between fleas and hosts. At the scale of biogeographic realms, the distribution of regional flea and host assemblages did not correspond to the predominant biome types. Assemblages with similar loadings on SDFA axes were often situated in different biomes and vice versa. The across-biome, within-realm distributions of flea host assemblages suggested weak congruence between these distributions. Our results indicate that dispersal is a predominant mechanism of flea and host community assembly across large regions.
我们利用来自 6 个生物地理区域的跳蚤及其小型哺乳动物宿主的区域组合的物种组成数据，并应用一种新的逐步降因子分析（SDFA）和聚类分析方法，来识别这些组合的生物地理（全球范围）和生态（一个区域内的主要陆地生物群系）聚类。我们发现，在全球范围内，SDFA 轴上的区域组合加载聚类很好地反映了它们所属的生物地理区域的组合分布。在全球范围内，与生物地理区域相对应的聚类拓扑结构在跳蚤和宿主组合之间是相似的，但在特定区域内的子树的拓扑结构在跳蚤和宿主之间有很大的不同。在生物地理区域的尺度上，区域跳蚤和宿主组合的分布与主要生物群落类型不对应。在 SDFA 轴上具有相似负载的组合通常位于不同的生物群落中，反之亦然。跳蚤-宿主组合的跨生物群落、区域内分布表明这些分布之间存在弱一致性。我们的结果表明，扩散是跳蚤和宿主群落在大区域内组装的主要机制。
