Multilevel Models for the Distribution of Hosts and Symbionts.

ABSTRACT: Symbiont occurrence is influenced by host occurrence and vice versa, which leads to correlations in host-symbiont distributions at multiple levels. Interactions between co-infecting symbionts within host individuals can cause correlations in the abundance of two symbiont species across individual hosts. Similarly, interactions between symbiont transmission and host population dynamics can drive correlations between symbiont and host abundance across habitat patches. If ignored, these interactions can confound estimated responses of hosts and symbionts to other factors. Here, we present a general hierarchical modeling framework for distributions of hosts and symbionts, estimating correlations in host-symbiont distributions at the among-site, within-site, among-species, and among-individual

SUBMITTER: Joseph MB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5104364 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature