Data from: Trematode infection prevalence increases with snail richness: Observations from a 4-year study of snail-trematode interactions

Digenean trematodes are often characterized as being more specific with
their gastropod first intermediate hosts than with the other hosts in
their complex life cycles. Trematodes can be host specialists or
generalists, sometimes exhibiting greater specialization at specific life
stages. Digenean trematodes are valuable study organisms for exploring how
biodiversity influences disease. In this study, we investigated the
relationship between snail richness and trematode infection prevalence
using data from a four-year study (2019-2022) of eight wetland sites in
Alberta, Canada. Trematode species were classified as specialists or
generalists at the first-intermediate host level, and generalized linear
mixed-effects models were employed to assess the relationship between
snail richness and overall, generalist, and specialist infection
prevalence. The findings indicate that as snail richness increased, there
was a significant increase in the overall and generalist infection
prevalence. This trend was also noted for host specialists, but was not
significant in the model. A decline in infection prevalence for all three
categories was observed in the final sampling year compared to the first
year, suggesting an impact of subtractive sampling on the trematode
community over time. This highlights the potential influence of long-term
sampling strategies on parasite community dynamics. Trematode and
snail-trematode interaction sample completeness and rarefaction analyses
indicated that high sample coverage was obtained, but further trematode
species remain to be cataloged. Additionally, we uncovered potential
host-switching events that could have important implications for disease
monitoring and management strategies that rely on snail hosts, emphasizing
the need for continued surveillance of host-parasite relationships.