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Co-extinction in a host-parasite network: identifying key hosts for network stability

Parasites comprise a substantial portion of total biodiversity. Ultimately, this means that host extinction could result in many secondary extinctions of obligate parasites and potentially alter host-parasite network structure. Here, we examined a highly resolved fish-parasite network to determine k...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Dallas, Tad, Cornelius, Emily
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4538395/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26278333
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep13185
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author Dallas, Tad
Cornelius, Emily
author_facet Dallas, Tad
Cornelius, Emily
author_sort Dallas, Tad
collection PubMed
description Parasites comprise a substantial portion of total biodiversity. Ultimately, this means that host extinction could result in many secondary extinctions of obligate parasites and potentially alter host-parasite network structure. Here, we examined a highly resolved fish-parasite network to determine key hosts responsible for maintaining parasite diversity and network structure (quantified here as nestedness and modularity). We evaluated four possible host extinction orders and compared the resulting co-extinction dynamics to random extinction simulations; including host removal based on estimated extinction risk, parasite species richness and host level contributions to nestedness and modularity. We found that all extinction orders, except the one based on realistic extinction risk, resulted in faster declines in parasite diversity and network structure relative to random biodiversity loss. Further, we determined species-level contributions to network structure were best predicted by parasite species richness and host family. Taken together, we demonstrate that a small proportion of hosts contribute substantially to network structure and that removal of these hosts results in rapid declines in parasite diversity and network structure. As network stability can potentially be inferred through measures of network structure, our findings may provide insight into species traits that confer stability.
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spelling pubmed-45383952015-08-25 Co-extinction in a host-parasite network: identifying key hosts for network stability Dallas, Tad Cornelius, Emily Sci Rep Article Parasites comprise a substantial portion of total biodiversity. Ultimately, this means that host extinction could result in many secondary extinctions of obligate parasites and potentially alter host-parasite network structure. Here, we examined a highly resolved fish-parasite network to determine key hosts responsible for maintaining parasite diversity and network structure (quantified here as nestedness and modularity). We evaluated four possible host extinction orders and compared the resulting co-extinction dynamics to random extinction simulations; including host removal based on estimated extinction risk, parasite species richness and host level contributions to nestedness and modularity. We found that all extinction orders, except the one based on realistic extinction risk, resulted in faster declines in parasite diversity and network structure relative to random biodiversity loss. Further, we determined species-level contributions to network structure were best predicted by parasite species richness and host family. Taken together, we demonstrate that a small proportion of hosts contribute substantially to network structure and that removal of these hosts results in rapid declines in parasite diversity and network structure. As network stability can potentially be inferred through measures of network structure, our findings may provide insight into species traits that confer stability. Nature Publishing Group 2015-08-17 /pmc/articles/PMC4538395/ /pubmed/26278333 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep13185 Text en Copyright © 2015, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Dallas, Tad
Cornelius, Emily
Co-extinction in a host-parasite network: identifying key hosts for network stability
title Co-extinction in a host-parasite network: identifying key hosts for network stability
title_full Co-extinction in a host-parasite network: identifying key hosts for network stability
title_fullStr Co-extinction in a host-parasite network: identifying key hosts for network stability
title_full_unstemmed Co-extinction in a host-parasite network: identifying key hosts for network stability
title_short Co-extinction in a host-parasite network: identifying key hosts for network stability
title_sort co-extinction in a host-parasite network: identifying key hosts for network stability
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4538395/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26278333
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep13185
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