Trait-based research holds high potential to unveil ecological and evolutionary processes. Functional traits are fitness-related characteristics of individuals, which are measured at individual level and defined without using information external to the individual. Despite the usefulness of the functional approach to understand the performance of individuals in ecosystems, and parasitism being the most common life-history strategy on Earth, studies based on functional traits of parasites are still scarce. Since the choice of functional traits is a critical step for any study, we propose a core list of seven functional traits of metazoan parasites, related to three universal challenges faced by organisms (dispersal, establishment, and persistence), and give guidelines to define appropriate functional traits in future parasite community studies.

Eawag Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology Surface Waters Research and Development Kastanienbaum Switzerland

Faculty of Science University of South Bohemia České Budějovice Czech Republic; CIDE CSIC C Nàquera Km 4 5 Montcada Valencia 46113 Spain

Natural History Museum of Geneva PO Box 6434 CH 1211 Geneva 6 Switzerland

Symbiosis Laboratory Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology University of Valencia PO Box 22085 46071 Valencia Spain

Citace poskytuje Crossref.org