Novel indices of conservation, endemism and diversity in obligate parasitic taxa, with the presentation of
ZISTA
software as a tool for their calculation: Conserving parasites to conserve the ecosyst
Mohammad Haseli Abstract
Evaluations of ecological dimensions are often applied uniformly across species, which can overlook species‐specific lifestyles. Indices of biodiversity, endemism and conservation have been introduced as general criteria for animals. Nonetheless, many species on Earth are parasitic, for which such indices were not specifically developed.
The indices of endemism and conservation for each parasite species, along with conservation indices, one diversity index, and one taxonomic assemblage index per parasite community, are presented.
The endemism index is novel in that it uses an ordinal value system, from ecoregion to realm, combined with parasite host specificity and the area of parasite distribution. Although conservation assessments have traditionally focused on free‐living animals, there are increasing arguments that parasites also deserve conservation attention. Nonetheless, no dedicated conservation index has yet been proposed for parasites. Therefore, two main conservation indices are introduced for parasites: one for each species and one for the community. These indices integrate endemism, host conservation status, and parasite mean abundance.
The Shannon diversity index is weighted by taxonomic composition represented here by a parameter called Taxonomic Log‐Root Breadth (TLRB), yielding the Taxonomic‐weighted Shannon Index (TSI). Both TSI and TLRB can be effectively employed not just for parasites but for free‐living animal assemblages. For conservation prioritization of parasite assemblages, the Community Conservation Priority Index (CCPI) was developed, integrating two components, TSI and the Global Normalized Sum Conservation (GNSC, as the sum of normalized conservation values). CCPI identifies parasite communities that most urgently require conservation attention.
Practical implication: To simplify all calculations and make these indices accessible to researchers and conservation managers, the software ZISTA has been developed.