Tapping into natural history collections to assess latitudinal gradients of parasite diversity.

ABSTRACT: Parasites are key components of the biosphere not only due to their huge diversity, but also because they exert important influences on ecological processes. Nevertheless, we lack an understanding of the biogeographical patterns of parasite diversity. Here, we tap into the potential of biodiversity collections for understanding parasite biogeography. We assess species richness of supracommunities of helminth parasites infecting mammal assemblages in the Nearctic, and describe its relation to latitude, climate, host diversity, and land area. We compiled data from parasitology collections and assessed parasite diversity in Nearctic ecoregions for the entire parasite supracommunity of mammals in each ecoregion, as well as separately from carnivores and rodents to explore the effect of host ta

SUBMITTER: Botero-Canola S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10410379 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature