The effects of habitat fragmentation on parasite communities

Despite living largely obscured, parasitic organisms constitute a significant component of the earth’s biological diversity. Moreover, recent research has shown that they play a critically important role in the function of natural ecosystems: ecosystems without parasites are profoundly out of balance. 

Substantial evidence shows that habitat fragmentation and loss lead to declines in resident wildlife populations. Much less is however known about the effects of these processes on the diversity of parasitic organisms. Many of the impacts of habitat fragmentation and loss on species communities occur over relatively long periods of time making it difficult to quantify these effects through regular experimental studies. To address this problem, we utilized a natural habitat fragmentation process that occurred since the last ice age (~15,000 years ago) when rising sea levels lead to the formation of numerous islands in the Mediterranean Basin. Together with our collaborators S. Valakos, V. Roca, and P. Pafilis we investigate how this habitat loss affects survivorship of native parasite communities. We find that as habitat fragments shrink, parasite communities become simplified with the species that have the most complex life cycles going extinct first (see Roca et al. 2009, Foufopoulos et al. 2016). 

These studies, among the first on the topic, indicate that conservation biologists need to be concerned about the impacts of anthropogenic activities on native parasite communities.