Host specificity and the reproductive strategies of parasites.

ABSTRACT: Environmental stability can have profound impacts on life history trait evolution in organisms, especially with respect to development and reproduction. In theory, free-living species, when subjected to relatively stable and predictable conditions over many generations, should evolve narrow niche breadths and become more specialized. In parasitic organisms, this level of specialization is reflected by their host specificity. Here, we tested how host specificity impacts the reproductive strategies of parasites, a subject seldomly addressed for this group. Through an extensive review of the literature, we collated a worldwide dataset to predict, through Bayesian multilevel modelling, the effect of host specificity on the reproductive strategies of parasitic copepods of fishes or corals. We f

SUBMITTER: Doherty JF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11010520 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature