Parasite richness and abundance within aquatic macroinvertebrates: testing the roles of host- and habitat-level factors.

ABSTRACT: The importance of parasites as both members of biological communities and as structuring agents of host communities has been increasingly emphasized. Yet parasites of aquatic macroinvertebrates and the environmental factors regulating their richness and abundance remain poorly studied. Here we quantified parasite richness and abundance within 12 genera of odonate naiads and opportunistically sampled four additional orders of aquatic macroinvertebrates from 35 freshwater ponds in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, USA. We also tested the relative contributions of host- and habitat-level factors in driving patterns of infection abundance for the most commonly encountered parasite (the trematode Haematoloechus sp.) in nymphal damselflies and dragonflies using hierarchical genera

SUBMITTER: McDevitt-Galles T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6159337 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature