title: The patterns of organisation and structure of interactions in a fish-parasite network of a neotropical river.
abstract: The use of the complex network approach to study host-parasite interactions has helped to improve the understanding of the structure and dynamics of ecological communities. In this study, this network approach is applied to evaluate the patterns of organisation and structure of interactions in a fish-parasite network of a neotropical Atlantic Forest river. The network includes 20 fish species and 73 metazoan parasite species collected from the Guandu River, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. According to the usual measures in studies of networks, the organisation of the network was evaluated using measures of host susceptibility, parasite dependence, interaction asymmetry, species strength and complementary specialisation of each species as well as the network. The network structure was evaluated using connectance, nestedness and modularity measures. Host susceptibility typically presented low values, whereas parasite dependence was high. The asymmetry and species strength were correlated with host taxonomy but not with parasite taxonomy. Differences among parasite taxonomic groups in the complementary specialisation of each species on hosts were also observed. However, the complementary specialisation and species strength values were not correlated. The network had a high complementary specialisation, low connectance and nestedness, and high modularity, thus indicating variability in the roles of species in the network organisation and the expected presence of many specialist species.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia de Ambientes Aquáticos Continentais, Núcleo de Pesquisas em Limnologia, Ictiologia e Aquicultura, Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Maringá, Brazil; Centro de Ciências Humanas e da Educação, Grupo de Estudos e Pesquisa em Recursos Hídricos e Ecologia Aplicada, Universidade Estadual do Norte do Paraná, Campus Jacarezinho, Jacarezinho, Brazil. Electronic address: sybellebellay@yahoo.com.br.
authors.forename: Sybelle
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bellay
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Engenharia Ambiental, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia Ambiental, Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná Campus Londrina, Londrina, Brazil.
authors.forename: Edson F de
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, Brazil.
authors.forename: Mário
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Almeida-Neto
authors.affiliation: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Universidade Sagrado Coração, Bauru, Brazil.
authors.forename: Vanessa D
authors.initials: VD
authors.lastname: Abdallah
authors.affiliation: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Universidade Sagrado Coração, Bauru, Brazil.
authors.forename: Rodney K de
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Azevedo
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia de Ambientes Aquáticos Continentais, Núcleo de Pesquisas em Limnologia, Ictiologia e Aquicultura, Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Maringá, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ricardo M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Takemoto
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Parasitologia Animal, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Veterinárias, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Seropédica, Brazil.
authors.forename: José L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Luque
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D058448:Biota; D001938:Brazil; D005393:Fish Diseases / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005399:Fishes / Q000145:classification / Q000469:parasitology; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D008954:Models, Biological; D010271:Parasites / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology*; D045483:Rivers / Q000469:parasitology*
keywords: Antagonistic interactions; Asymmetry; Freshwater; Guandu River; Modularity; Nestedness; Quantitative ecological network