Experimental insight into the process of parasite community assembly

1.Community assembly is a fundamental process that has long been a central focus in ecology. Extending community assembly theory to communities of co-infecting parasites, we used a gastrointestinal nematode removal experiment in free-ranging African buffalo to examine community assembly patterns and processes.
2.We first asked whether reassembled communities differ from undisturbed communities by comparing anthelmintic-treated and control hosts. Next, we examined the temporal dynamics of assembly using a cross-section of communities that reassembled for different periods of time since last experimental removal. Next, we tested for evidence of assembly processes that might drive such reassembly patterns: environmental filtering based on host traits (i.e. habitat patches), interspecific interactions, priority effects, and chance dispersal from the environmental pool of infective stages (i.e. the regional species pool).
3.On average, reassembled parasite communities had lower abundances,...

1.群落组装（community assembly）是生态学中长久以来的核心研究焦点之一的基础过程。将群落组装理论扩展至共感染寄生虫群落，我们通过在自由活动的非洲水牛中开展胃肠道线虫移除实验，探究群落组装的模式与过程。
2.首先，我们通过比较驱虫处理（anthelmintic-treated）宿主与对照宿主，探讨重建群落是否与未受干扰的群落存在差异。其次，我们利用自上次实验移除后经过不同重建时长的群落横截面数据，分析组装的时间动态。接着，我们验证了可能驱动此类重建模式的组装过程证据：基于宿主特征（即栖息地斑块）的环境过滤（environmental filtering）、种间相互作用（interspecific interactions）、优先效应（priority effects），以及来自环境感染阶段库（即区域物种库，regional species pool）的随机扩散。
3.平均而言，重建的寄生虫群落丰度更低，...