ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2021
Functional biogeography of parasite traits: hypotheses and evidence.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Long-term trends in parasite diversity and infection levels: approaches and patterns.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- A new species of Dichelyne (Nematoda: Cucullanidae) parasitizing fish of the family Pimelodidae in the Amazon estuary, northern Brazilian coast.Revista brasileira de parasitologia veterinaria = Brazilian journal of veterinary parasitology : Orgao Oficial do Colegio Brasileiro de Parasitologia Veterinaria · 2026Article
- Bathymetric distribution of parasitic copepods: strategies for adaptation to the deep-sea environment.Parasitology · 2025Article
- Evidence for the importance of trophically transmitted parasites and predation at the lower latitudes of species ranges.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Functional similarity affects similarity in partner composition in flea-mammal networks.Parasitology research · 2024Article
- Relationships between functional alpha and beta diversities of flea parasites and their small mammalian hosts.Parasitology · 2024Article
- An informatic workflow for the enhanced annotation of excretory/secretory proteins ofComputational and structural biotechnology journal · 2023Article
- Article
- Phanerozoic parasitism and marine metazoan diversity: dilution versus amplification.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Infectious disease macroecology: parasite diversity and dynamics across the globe.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Article
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Abstract
Functional biogeography, or the study of trait-based distributional patterns, not only complements our understanding of spatial patterns in biodiversity, but also sheds light on the underlying processes generating them. In parallel with the well-studied latitudinal diversity gradient, decades-old ecogeographical rules also postulate latitudinal variation in species traits. Notably, species in the tropics are predicted to have smaller body sizes (Bergmann's rule), narrower niches (MacArthur's rule) and smaller geographical ranges (Rapoport's rule) than their counterparts at higher latitudes. Although originally proposed for free-living organisms, these rules have been extended to parasitic organisms as well. In this review, I discuss the mechanistic hypotheses most likely to explain latitudinal gradients in parasite traits, and assess the empirical evidence obtained from comparative studies testing the above three rules as well as latitudinal gradients in other parasite traits. Overall, there is only weak empirical support for latitudinal gradients in any parasite trait, with little consistency among comparative analyses. The most parsimonious explanation for the existence of geographical patterns in parasite traits is that they are primarily host-driven, i.e. ecological traits of parasites track those of their hosts, with a direct influence of bioclimatic factors playing a secondary role. Thus, geographical patterns in parasite traits probably emerge as epiphenomena of parallel patterns in their hosts. This article is part of the theme issue 'Infectious disease macroecology: parasite diversity and dynamics across the globe'.
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