The latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG), in which species richness decreases from the equator towards the poles, is among the most fundamental distributional patterns in ecology. Despite the expectation that the diversity of parasites tracks that of their hosts, available evidence suggests that many parasites exhibit reverse latitudinal gradients or no pattern, yet the rarity of large-scale datasets on host–parasite interactions calls into question the robustness of such trends. Here, we collected parasitological data from a host group of conservation importance, lentic-breeding amphibians, to characterize the form and direction of relationships among latitude, parasite richness and parasite load.

中文翻译：

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为什么寄生虫表现出反向纬度多样性梯度？测试宿主多样性、栖息地和气候的作用

物种丰富度从赤道向两极递减的纬度多样性梯度（LDG）是生态学中最基本的分布模式之一。尽管预计寄生虫的多样性会追踪其宿主的多样性，但现有证据表明，许多寄生虫表现出反向纬度梯度或没有模式，但关于宿主 - 寄生虫相互作用的大规模数据集的稀有性令人质疑这种趋势的稳健性。在这里，我们收集了具有保护重要性的寄主群体的寄生虫学数据，即繁殖两栖动物，以描述纬度、寄生虫丰富度和寄生虫负荷之间关系的形式和方向。