Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-swr86 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-24T02:32:25.108Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The number of niches in intestinal helminth communities of Anguilla anguilla: are there enough spaces for parasites?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

C. R. Kennedy  and
J.-F. Guégan
C. R. Kennedy*
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4PS, UK
J.-F. Guégan
Affiliation:
ORSTOM, B.P. 165, 97323 Cayenne cedex, Guyane, France
*
* Corresponding author. Tel: 01392 263757. Fax: 01392 263700. E-mail: biology@exeter.ac.uk.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The suggestion that there may be a limit to the number of niches available to helminth species in the intestine of Anguilla anguilla was investigated by examining the frequency distributions of the number of helminth species per eel and the relationships between maximum and mean infracommunity richness and component community richness in 1 locality over 17 years and in 64 localities throughout Ireland and England. The maximum number of species per eel did not exceed 4 in the 1 locality, or 3 in the 64 localities. In both the single and the several localities, the relationship between maximum and mean infracommunity richness and component community richness was curvilinear and best described by a power or polynomial function. This was interpreted to mean that infracommunity richness became increasingly independent of component community richness, and that infracommunities were saturated at values well below the higher level of helminth richness immediately available for colonization i.e. component community richness. It is argued that these findings cannot be explained by supply-side ecology, pool exhaustion or transmission rates, but only by infracommunity processes acting to impose a fixed limit to the number of species in an infracommunity. Most infracommunities are species poor, and the limiting factors will only operate as species richness rises to determine a maximum. Acceptance of a limit to the number of niches available also resolves the apparent inconsistency between the occurrence and importance of interspecific competition and the nature of isolationist communities.

Keywords

fishhelminth communitynichecompetitionspecies richnesstemporal seriesspatial series
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 113 , Issue 3 , September 1996 , pp. 293 - 302
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aho, J. M. (1990). Helminth communities of amphibians and reptiles: comparative approaches to understanding patterns and processes. In Parasite Communities: Patterns and Processes (ed. Esch, G., Bush, A. O. & Aho, J.). pp. 157–95. Chapman & Hall, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bates, H. M. & Kennedy, C. R. (1990). Interactions between the acanthocephalans Pomphorhynchus laevis and Acanthocephalus anguillae in rainbow trout: testing an exclusion hypothesis. Parasitology 100, 435–444.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bates, R. M. & Kennedy, C. R. (1991). Potential interactions between Acanthocephalus anguillae and Pomphorhynchus laevis in their natural hosts chub, Leuciscus cephalus and the European eel, Anguilla anguilla. Parasitology 102, 289–297.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bush, A. O. (1990). Helminth communities in avian hosts: determinants of pattern. In Parasite Communities: Patterns and Processes (ed. Esch, G. W., Bush, A. O. & Aho, J.) pp. 197–232. Chapman & Hall, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bush, A. O. & Holmes, J. C. (1986). Intestinal helminths of lesser scaup ducks: patterns of association. Canadian Journal of Zoology 64, 132–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chappell, L. H. (1969). Competitive exclusion between two intestinal parasites of the three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus L. Journal of Parasitology 55, 775–778.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Connor, E. F. & MacCoy, E. D. (1979). The statistics and biology of the species-area relationship. American Naturalist 113, 791–833.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cornell, H. V. (1985 a). Species assemblages of cynipid gall wasps are not saturated. American Naturalist 126, 565–569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cornell, H. V. (1985 b). Local and regional richness of Cynipine gall wasps on California oaks. Ecology 66, 1247–1260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cornell, H. V. (1994). Unsaturated patterns in species assemblages: the role of regional processes in setting local species richness. In Species Diversity in Ecological Communities. Historical and Geographical Perspectives (ed. Ricklefs, R. E. & Schluter, D.) pp. 243–252. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Fox, B. J. (1987). Species assembly and the evolution of community structure. Evolutionary Ecology 1, 201–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gregory, R. D. (1990). Parasites and host geographic range as illustrated by waterfowl. Functional Ecology 4, 645–654.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grey, A. J. & Hayunga, E. G. (1980). Evidence for alternative site selection by Glaridacris laruei (Cestoidea: Caryophyllidea) as a result of interspecific competition. Journal of Parasitology 66, 371–372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guégan, J.-F. & Kennedy, C. R. (1993). Maximum local helminth parasite community richness in British fresh water fish: a test of the colonization time hypothesis. Parasitology 106, 91–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halvorsen, O. & MacDonald, S. (1972). Studies on the helminth fauna of Norway XXVI: The distribution of Cyathocephalus truncatus (Pallas) in the intestine of the brown trout (Salmo trutta L.). Norwegian Journal of Zoology 20, 265–272.Google Scholar
Holmes, J. C. (1990). Helminth communities in marine fishes. In Parasite Communities: Patterns and Processes (ed. Esch, G. W., Bush, A. O. & Aho, J.) pp. 101–130. Chapman & Hall, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hugueny, B. & Paugy, D. (1995). Unsaturated fish communities in African rivers. American Naturalist 146, 162–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, C. R. (1985). Site segregation by species of Acanthocephala in fish, with special reference to eels, Anguilla anguilla. Parasitology 90, 375–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, C. R. (1990). Helminth communities in fresh water fish: structured communities or stochastic assemblages? In Parasite Communities: Patterns and Processess (ed. Esch, G. W., Bush, A. O. & Aho, J. M.) pp. 131–156. Chapman & Hall, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, C. R. (1992). Field evidence for interactions between the acanthocephalans Acanthocephalus anguillae and A. hicii in eels, Anguilla anguilla. Ecological Parasitology 1, 122–134.Google Scholar
Kennedy, C. R. (1993). The dynamics of intestinal helminth communities in eels Anguilla anguilla in a small stream: long-term changes in richness and structure. Parasitology 107, 71–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, C. R. (1995). Richness and diversity of macroparasite communities in tropical eels Anguilla reinhardtii in Queensland, Australia. Parasitology 111, 233–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, C. R. & Guégan, J.-F. (1994). Regional versus local helminth parasite richness in British freshwater fish: saturated or unsaturated parasite communities? Parasitology 109, 175–185.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kennedy, C. R. & Moriarty, C. (1987). Co-existence of congeneric species of Acanthocephala: Acanthocephalus lucii and A. anguillae in eels Anguilla anguilla in Ireland. Parasitology 95, 301–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, C. R., Bates, R. M. & Brown, A. F. (1989). Discontinuous distributions of the fish acanthocephalans Pomphorhynchus laevis and Acanthocephalus anguillae in Britain and Ireland: an hypothesis. Journal of Fish Biology 34, 607–619.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, C. R., Laffoley, D. d'A., Bishop, G., Jones, P. & Taylor, M. (1986). Communities of parasites of freshwater fish of Jersey, Channel Islands. Journal of Fish Biology 29, 215–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacKenzie, K. & Gibson, D. (1970). Ecological studies of some parasites of plaice, Pleuronectes platessa (L.) and flounder, Platichthys flesus (L.). Symposium of the British Society for Parasitology 8, 1–42.Google Scholar
Price, P. W. (1984). Communities of specialists: vacant niches in ecological and evolutionary time. In Ecological Communities (ed. Strong, D. R. Jr., Simberloff, D., Abele, L. G. & Thistle, A. B.) pp. 510–523. Princeton University Press, Princeton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, P. W. (1986). Evolution in parasite communities. In Parasitology – Quo Vadit? Proceedings of the 6th International Congress of Parasitology (ed. Ho well, M. J.) pp. 209–214. Australian Academy of Sciences, Brisbane.Google Scholar
Price, P. W. (1990). Host populations as resources defining parasite community organization. In Parasite Communities: Patterns and Processes (ed. Esch, G. W., Bush, A. O. & Aho, J.) pp. 21–40. Chapman & Hall London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ricklefs, R. E. (1989). Speciation and diversity: integration of local and regional processes. In Speciation and its Consequences (ed. Otte, D. & Endler, J.) pp. 599–622. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Mass.Google Scholar
Sokal, R. R. & Rohlf, F. J. (1981). Biometry. 2nd Edn.Freeman & Co, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Strong, D. R., Lawton, J. H. & Southwood, T. R. E. (1984). Insects on Plants: Community Patterns and Mechanisms. Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Thomas, J. D. (1958). Studies on Crepidostomum metoecus (Braun) and C. farionis (Muller), parasitic in Salmo trutta and S. salar in Britain. Parasitology 48, 336–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkinson, L., Hill, M. A. & Vang, E. (1992). Statistics. Systat Inc., Evanston.Google Scholar