A positive relationship between distribution and local abundance is often observed among species in a community. The resource-breadth hypothesis suggests that this pattern is the result of differential abilities among species to utilize available resources, such that generalists are widely distributed and locally abundant, and specialists are narrowly distributed and locally sparse. This hypothesis was tested in a community consisting of 22 species or morphospecies of parasites infecting members of 18 species of fish among 14 sites in 7 small streams in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. A positive relationship between distribution (fraction of sites occupied) and abundance (average local abundance) was evident among parasite species. The number of host species infected by each parasite species was positively related to both distribution and average local abundance; both relationships held after statistical removal of the distribution and abundance of the hosts, respectively. These results support the resource-breadth hypothesis as an explanation for the distribution–abundance relationship in this system.
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June 2002
Research Article|
June 01 2002
HOST SPECIFICITY AND THE DISTRIBUTION–ABUNDANCE RELATIONSHIP IN A COMMUNITY OF PARASITES INFECTING FISHES IN STREAMS OF NORTH CAROLINA
Michael A. Barger
;
Michael A. Barger
Department of Biology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27109. barger@bobcat.peru.edu
* Current address: Department of Natural Sciences, Hoyt Hall, Peru State College, Peru, Nebraska 68421
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Gerald W. Esch
Gerald W. Esch
Department of Biology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27109. barger@bobcat.peru.edu
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J Parasitol (2002) 88 (3): 446–453.
Citation
Michael A. Barger, Gerald W. Esch; HOST SPECIFICITY AND THE DISTRIBUTION–ABUNDANCE RELATIONSHIP IN A COMMUNITY OF PARASITES INFECTING FISHES IN STREAMS OF NORTH CAROLINA. J Parasitol 1 June 2002; 88 (3): 446–453. doi: https://doi.org/10.1645/0022-3395(2002)088[0446:HSATDA]2.0.CO;2
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