CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Research in parasite ecology requires accurate identification of studied species, and thus depends on taxonomic tools for identification. Traditional, as well as developing areas of research, such as geographical patterns of biodiversity and phylogeography, the influence of global climate change, the role of parasites in food webs, etc., are closely tied to research in systematics and taxonomy. This dependence applies to all parasite groups, however, the complex life-cycles of trematodes and their changing morphology and required hosts across the life-cycle pose greater difficulties for ecologists and require more concentrated efforts from taxonomists. A comprehensive, regularly updated, online database of trematode diversity would be a great step forward. Although the number of described and named trematode species is always increasing, often trematodes are only identified to genus or family level in community studies, especially those at larval stages. Furthermore, the number of fully resolved life-cycles remains very small. Parasite ecology would certainly benefit if taxonomists invested at least as much effort on figuring out life-cycles than on describing new species, thus revealing pathways of trophic transmission. The use of phylogenetic information in community ecology has grown dramatically in recent years, mainly stimulated by the idea that evolutionary relationships can provide insights into historical processes shaping community assembly. We need more resolved phylogenies in most groups of trematodes to identify ecological, evolutionary, and biogeographic drivers of parasite community composition. As parasite ecology expands and evolves, it will need taxonomic descriptions of both larval and adult trematodes, knowledge of their life-cycles and their phylogenetic relationships, all more readily accessible than at present