AIM: Positive relationships in compositional similarity between consumer and resource assemblages are widely known in free‐living taxa, but less is known about parasites and their hosts. We investigated whether congruent patterns of assemblage similarity across diverse taxa of hosts and parasites exist at a continental scale and quantified the relative importance of host assemblages and environmental variables in shaping these relationships. LOCATION: European freshwaters. MAJOR TAXA STUDIED: The hosts were fishes, birds and mammals. The parasites were monogeneans, trematodes and copepods. METHODS: We extracted distribution data from the Limnofauna Europaea for three aquatic parasite taxa and for three vertebrate taxa functioning as their definitive hosts across 25 biogeographical regions in Europe. First, we investigated β‐diversity congruence patterns between parasite and host assemblages, corrected for the distance between regions using partial Mantel tests. Second, we assessed the relative importance of host assemblages and environmental variables in shaping parasite β‐diversity patterns using generalized dissimilarity models (GDMs). RESULTS: Spatial community dissimilarities of regional parasite assemblages were positively correlated with those of their respective host assemblages in all five parasite–host groups studied. The GDMs highlighted the equal importance of both host assemblages and environmental variables in shaping parasite assemblages. However, the direct effect of host assemblages was relatively small compared with the effect of environmental factors mediated by host assemblages. Climatic parameters (precipitation and temperature) contributed most to the variance explained by environmental variables. MAIN CONCLUSIONS: Our analyses indicate that spatially congruent patterns of assemblage similarity exist between parasites and their hosts at a continental scale. They also suggest that this congruence is driven not only by host assemblages but also by environmental (climatic) variables, either directly or indirectly via their effects on host assemblages. Thus, environmental variables are important for mapping, forecasting and management of parasites at a geographical scale.

中文翻译：

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宿主组合和环境塑造了大陆尺度不同分类群中淡水寄生虫的β多样性

目的：消费者和资源组合之间组成相似性的正相关关系在自由生活的分类群中广为人知，但对寄生虫及其宿主知之甚少。我们调查了大陆尺度上是否存在宿主和寄生虫不同分类群之间的组合相似性的一致模式，并量化了宿主组合和环境变量在塑造这些关系中的相对重要性。地点：欧洲淡水。研究的主要类群：宿主是鱼类、鸟类和哺乳动物。寄生虫是单殖吸虫、吸虫和桡足类。方法：我们从 Limnofauna Europaea 中提取了欧洲 25 个生物地理区域的三种水生寄生虫类群和三种作为终宿主的脊椎动物类群的分布数据。第一的，我们研究了寄生虫和宿主组合之间的 β 多样性一致性模式，使用部分 Mantel 测试校正了区域之间的距离。其次，我们使用广义相异模型 (GDM) 评估了宿主组合和环境变量在塑造寄生虫 β 多样性模式方面的相对重要性。结果：在所研究的所有五个寄生虫宿主组中，区域寄生虫组合的空间群落差异与其各自宿主组合的空间群落差异呈正相关。GDM 强调了宿主组合和环境变量在塑造寄生虫组合方面的同等重要性。然而，与宿主组合介导的环境因素的影响相比，宿主组合的直接影响相对较小。气候参数（降水和温度）对环境变量解释的方差贡献最大。主要结论：我们的分析表明，在大陆尺度上，寄生虫与其宿主之间存在空间一致的组合相似性模式。他们还表明，这种一致性不仅由宿主组合驱动，还由环境（气候）变量驱动，直接或间接通过它们对宿主组合的影响。因此，环境变量对于地理范围内寄生虫的测绘、预测和管理很重要。他们还表明，这种一致性不仅由宿主组合驱动，还由环境（气候）变量驱动，直接或间接通过它们对宿主组合的影响。因此，环境变量对于地理范围内寄生虫的测绘、预测和管理很重要。他们还表明，这种一致性不仅由宿主组合驱动，还由环境（气候）变量驱动，直接或间接通过它们对宿主组合的影响。因此，环境变量对于地理范围内寄生虫的测绘、预测和管理很重要。