Estrutura e dinâmica de comunidades de endoparasitos de lagartos em áreas de caatinga em regime pós-distúrbio

Abstract

The study of parasite populations and their relationship with their hosts and the environment has been gaining ground in recent years. Parasite species can be used to understand mechanisms of coevolution, predator / prey relationship, effect of temporal variations and impact of human actions on the environment. In the present work, we evaluated the effect of vegetation suppression, and the temporal variation on abundance, species acquisition and on the ecological relationships between endoparasites and their lizard hosts. The collections were all carried out in areas of Caatinga in the Alto Sertão Sergipano, Northeast Brazil, with one collection carried out in the dry period, and another in the rainy season. 2 141 lizard specimens belonging to 16 species were collected, 25 687 specimens of endoparasites belonging to 13 species were collected. Our main objectives are: (i) to understand the structure of the endoparasite community, (ii) to evaluate the effect of vegetation removal and temporal variation on the endoparasite community, and (iii) to describe the pattern in the interaction networks between endoparasites, hosts and diet. Our results indicate that, for Caatinga environments, the endoparasite fauna associated with lizards are: (i) composed of generalist species, with a high degree of aggregation, where the average abundance is regulated by variance, (ii) changes in the environment reflect the abundance and acquisition of endoparasitic species, in lizard hosts, (iii) endoparasites, also like the diet, present a nested pattern in the interaction networks. We present the first work with lizard endoparasites, in relation to the effect of suppression of vegetation shaping aspects of the community and species acquisition.