Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel
Irina S. Khokhlova
French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel
Natalya P. Korallo-Vinarskaya
Laboratory for the Study of Parasitic Arthropods, Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation
Anne Laudisoit
EcoHealth Alliance, New York, NY 10018, USA Peveco GROUP, University of Antwerp, Belgium
Programa de Conservación de los Murciélagos de Argentina (PCMA) and Instituto de Investigaciones de Biodiversidad Argentina (PIDBA)-CCT CONICET Noa Sur (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas), Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e IML, UNT, and Fundación Miguel Lillo, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina
Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires-CITNOBA (UNNOBA-UNSAdA- CONICET), Pergamino, Argentina
Michal Stanko
Institute of Parasitology and Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Kosice, Slovakia
Luther van der Mesht
Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology, Stellenbosch University, Matieland, South Africa Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa
Maxim V. Vinarski
Laboratory of Macroecology and Biogeography of Invertebrates, Saint-Petersburg State University, Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation
We applied a novel framework based on network theory and a concept of modularity that estimates congruence between trait-based ( = functional) co-occurrence networks, thus allowing the inference of co-occurrence patterns and the determination of the predominant mechanism of community assembly. The aim was to investigate the relationships between species co-occurrence and trait similarity in flea communities at various scales (compound communities: across regions within a biogeographic realm or across sampling sites within a geographic region; component communities: across sampling sites within a geographic region; and infracommunities: within a sampling site). We found that compound communities within biogeographic realms were assembled via environmental or host-associated filtering. In contrast, functional and spatial/host-associated co-occurrence networks, at the scale of regional compound communities, mostly indicated either stochastic processes or the lack of dominance of any deterministic process. Analyses of congruence between functional and either spatial (for component communities) or host-associated (for infracommunities) co-occurrence networks demonstrated that assembly rules in these communities varied among host species. In component communities, stochastic processes prevailed, whereas environmental filtering was indicated in 4 and limiting similarity/competition in 9 of 31 communities. Limiting similarity/competition processes dominated in infracommunities, followed by stochastic mechanisms. We conclude that assembly processes in parasite communities are scale-dependent, with different mechanisms acting at different scales.
