Large-scale spatial variation in parasite communities influenced by anthropogenic factors

Parasites are integral members of natural communities, but large-scale determinants of their abundance and diversity, including the importance of biotic and abiotic factors, both natural and anthropogenic, are often not well understood. Here, we examine which factors best predict larval trematode communities in the mudsnail host Ilyanassa obsoleta across a regional landscape. At 15 salt marsh sites spanning 200 km, we quantified the diversity of trematodes and the prevalence (i.e., proportion) of infected hosts and sampled a broad array of potential parasite predictors including abundance of intermediate and definitive hosts, habitat, nutrients, metals, roads, and sediment characteristics. We identified the set of best performing models to explain variability associated with five metrics of trematode prevalence and diversity using an information-theoretic approach. Results indicate that several anthropogenic factors associate with this trematode community and that the direction of their influence differs. Road density around sites was a strong negative predictor of all trematode prevalence and species richness metrics. Nitrogen, another human influenced variable, was a strong positive predictor for the most abundant trematode species in the system. In addition, the abundance of definitive fish hosts was a positive predictor in several models, confirming the importance of this direct biological link to parasites. Other influential variables included sediment composition and heavy metals (arsenic, copper, lead, and zinc). We discuss possible direct and indirect mechanisms to explain these findings including that anthropogenic factors may be directly influencing free-living stages of trematodes, or be acting as proxies of hard-to-measure hosts.