Environment and traits affect parasite and host species positions but not roles in flea-mammal networks

KRASBOV, B. R.; SHENBROT, G.; KHOKHLOVA, I. S.; LOPEZ BERRIZBEITIA, M. F.; MATTHEE, S.; SANCHEZ, J. P.; VAN DER MESCHT, L.

Integrative Zoology

Wiley

Año: 2024

1749-4877

AbstractWe studied spatial variation in and the effects of environment andnetwork size on species position and species roles in multiple flea-mammalnetworks from four biogeographic realms and asked whether species positions (measuredas species strength, the degree of interaction specialization and theeigenvector centrality) or roles of fleas and their hosts in the interactionnetworks from four biogeographic realms (i) repeatable/conserved within a fleaor a host species; (ii) vary in dependence of environmental variables and/ornetwork size, and (iii) asked whether the effects of environment and networksize on species positions or roles in the networks depend on species traits. Therepeatability analysis of species position indices for 441 flea and 429 hostspecies, occurring in at least two networks, demonstrated that, althoughrepeatability of SS, d’ and C within a species was significant, although notespecially high, suggesting that the values of the indices affected by localfactors. Majority of flea and host species in the majority of networksdemonstrated peripheral role which was invariant in the networks in which theyoccurred. A value of at least one index of species position was significantlyaffected by environmental variables or network size in 41 and 36, respectively,of the 52 flea or 52 host species that occurred in multiple networks. Therelationship between an index of a species position and either environmentalfactors or network size could be either positive or negative. In both fleas andhosts, the occurrence of significant effect of environment or networks size onat least one index of species position, but not on species’ role in a networkwas associated with some traits.