Parasite communities : patterns and processes

We first discussed the possibility of organizing a symposium on helminth communities in June, 1986. At that time, we were engaged in writing a joint paper on potential structuring mechanisms in helminth communities; we disagreed on a number of issues. We felt the reason for such debate was because the discipline was in a great state of flux, with many new concepts and approaches being introduced with increasing frequency. After consider­ able discussion about the need, scope and the inevitable limitations of such a symposium, we decided that the time was ripe to bring other ecologists, engaged in similar research, face-to-face. There were many individuals from whom to choose; we selected those who were actively publishing on helminth communities or those who had expertise in areas which we felt were particularly appropriate. We compiled a list of potential participants, contacted them and received unanimous support to organize such a symposium. Our intent was to cover several broad areas, fully recognizing that breadth negates depth (at least with a publisher's limitation on the number of pages). We felt it important to consider patterns amongst different kinds of hosts because this is where we had disagreed among ourselves. Front Matter....Pages i-xi Patterns and processes in helminth parasite communities: an overview....Pages 1-19 Host populations as resources defining parasite community organization....Pages 21-40 Spatial scale and the processes structuring a guild of larval trematode parasites....Pages 41-67 Guild structure of larval trematodes in molluscan hosts: prevalence, dominance and significance of competition....Pages 69-100 Helminth communities in marine fishes....Pages 101-130 Helminth communities in freshwater fish: structured communities or stochastic assemblages?....Pages 131-156 Helminth communities of amphibians and reptiles: comparative approaches to understanding patterns and processes....Pages 157-195 Helminth communities in avian hosts: determinants of pattern....Pages 197-232 Helminth community of mammalian hosts: concepts at the infracommunity, component and compound community levels....Pages 233-260 Models for multi-species parasite-host communities....Pages 261-288 Free-living communities and alimentary tract helminths: hypotheses and pattern analyses....Pages 289-319 Concluding remarks....Pages 321-325 Back Matter....Pages 327-335 A book of essential information on parasitic helminth communities for all those involved and interested in parasitology and community ecology. It examines a wide range of vertebrate and molluscan hosts, and includes a combination of literature review plus substantial new data.