TY - JOUR T1 - Local and Regional Urbanization: Correlates of Parasite Community Composition and Richness in the Salt Marsh Fish, <em>Fundulus Heteroclitus</em> JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/404756 SP - 404756 AU - James M. Alfieri AU - Tavis K. Anderson Y1 - 2018/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/08/31/404756.abstract N2 - This study examined the relationship between regional urbanization and the local transmission and establishment of parasites in the salt marsh fish, Fundulus heteroclitus. To determine the relative importance of abiotic and biotic factors across local and regional scales, we quantified the parasite community in Fundulus heteroclitus collected from 6 sites selected to reflect a gradient of urbanization (determined by variation in impervious surface). A total of 630 fish was studied, with 105 collected per site in 4 collection periods from 2015-16: concurrently, we measured local abiotic parameters and regional landscape descriptors. Trace metal concentrations differed between sites, but the relationship between contaminant concentration and urbanization was not consistent. Algal biomass, determined through measurement of chlorophyll a, was significantly higher in urbanized sites, but there was not a corresponding increase in total nitrogen or total phosphorus concentrations. Parasite component communities were different between sites, with the pattern primarily associated with the presence or absence of a complex life-cycle digenean, Lasiotocus minutus. The most consistent predictors of parasite infracommunity richness within F. heteroclitus were host size, % regional salt marsh, and regional patch density. Our data demonstrate that measures of regional urbanization do not have a consistent effect on the local abiotic environment and that parasite infracommunity richness is best explained through the consideration of regional abiotic and local biotic factors. This study demonstrates how anthropogenically driven landscape change influences fine-scale parasite transmission and parasite species richness. ER -