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Updated: Oct 19, 2025

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Published on: May 31, 2018
Drivers of parasite β-diversity among anuran hosts depend on scale, realm and parasite group
Paulo Mateus Martins1,2, Robert Poulin3, Thiago Gonçalves-Souza2
1Programa de Pós-Graduação em Etnobiologia e Conservação da Natureza, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco (UFRPE), Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil.
Abstract:
A robust understanding of what drives parasite β-diversity is an essential step towards explaining what limits pathogens' geographical spread. We used a novel global dataset (latitude -39.8 to 61.05 and longitude -117.84 to 151.49) on helminths of anurans to investigate how the relative roles of climate, host composition and spatial distance to parasite β-diversity vary with spatial scale (global, Nearctic and Neotropical), parasite group (nematodes and trematodes) and host taxonomic subset (family). We found that spatial distance is the most important driver of parasite β-diversity at the global scale. Additionally, we showed that the relative effects of climate concerning distance increase at the regional scale when compared with the global scale and that trematodes are generally more responsive to climate than nematodes. Unlike previous studies done at the regional scale, we did not find an effect of host composition on parasite β-diversity. Our study presents a new contribution to parasite macroecological theory, evidencing spatial and taxonomic contingencies of parasite β-diversity patterns, which are related to the zoogeographical realm and host taxonomic subset, respectively. This article is part of the theme issue 'Infectious disease macroecology: parasite diversity and dynamics across the globe'.
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