Biodiversity loss decreases parasite diversity: theory and patterns
Open Access
- 19 October 2012
- journal article
- review article
- Published by The Royal Society in Philosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences
- Vol. 367 (1604), 2814-2827
- https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2012.0110
Abstract
Past models have suggested host–parasite coextinction could lead to linear, or concave down relationships between free-living species richness and parasite richness. I explored several models for the relationship between parasite richness and biodiversity loss. Life cycle complexity, low generality of parasites and sensitivity of hosts reduced the robustness of parasite species to the loss of free-living species diversity. Food-web complexity and the ordering of extinctions altered these relationships in unpredictable ways. Each disassembly of a food web resulted in a unique relationship between parasite richness and the richness of free-living species, because the extinction trajectory of parasites was sensitive to the order of extinctions of free-living species. However, the average of many disassemblies tended to approximate an analytical model. Parasites of specialist hosts and hosts higher on food chains were more likely to go extinct in food-web models. Furthermore, correlated extinctions between hosts and parasites (e.g. if parasites share a host with a specialist predator) led to steeper declines in parasite richness with biodiversity loss. In empirical food webs with random removals of free-living species, the relationship between free-living species richness and parasite richness was, on average, quasi-linear, suggesting biodiversity loss reduces parasite diversity more than previously thought.Keywords
This publication has 69 references indexed in Scilit:
- New parasites and predators follow the introduction of two fish species to a subarctic lake: implications for food-web structure and functioningOecologia, 2012
- Unravelling the structure of species extinction risk for predictive conservation scienceProceedings Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2010
- Global drivers of human pathogen richness and prevalenceProceedings Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2010
- Parasites reduce food web robustness because they are sensitive to secondary extinction as illustrated by an invasive estuarine snailPhilosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2009
- Cascading extinctions and community collapse in model food websPhilosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2009
- The sixth mass coextinction: are most endangered species parasites and mutualists?Proceedings Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2009
- Homage to Linnaeus: How many parasites? How many hosts?Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2008
- Unraveling prion strains with cell biology and organic chemistryProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2008
- Can parasites be indicators of free-living diversity? Relationships between species richness and the abundance of larval trematodes and of local benthos and fishesOecologia, 2006
- Parasites dominate food web linksProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2006