1 3 Oecologia DOI 10.1007/s00442-017-3876-6 COMMUNITY ECOLOGY – ORIGINAL RESEARCH Beta-diversity of ectoparasites at two spatial scales: nested hierarchy, geography and habitat type Elizabeth M. Warburton 1 · Luther van der Mescht 1,7 · Michal Stanko 2 · Maxim V. Vinarski 3,4 · Natalia P. Korallo-Vinarskaya 5,6 · Irina S. Khokhlova 7 · Boris R. Krasnov 1 Received: 23 December 2016 / Accepted: 26 April 2017 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017 position) or ecological (partitioning of sites according to habitat type) characteristics affect phylogenetic/taxonomic and functional components of dissimilarity of ectopara- site assemblages and (c) whether assemblages of fleas and gamasid mites differ in their degree of dissimilarity, all else being equal. We found that compositional, phylogenetic/ taxonomic, or functional beta-diversity was greater on a continental rather than a regional scale. Compositional and phylogenetic/taxonomic components of beta-diversity were greater among larger units than among smaller units within larger units, whereas functional beta-diversity did not exhibit any consistent trend regarding site partition- ing. Geographic partitioning resulted in higher values of beta-diversity of ectoparasites than ecological partitioning. Compositional and phylogenetic components of beta-diver- sity were higher in fleas than mites but the opposite was true for functional beta-diversity in some, but not all, traits. Keywords Fleas · Mites · Dissimilarity · Arthropods · Site partitioning Abstract Beta-diversity of biological communities can be decomposed into (a) dissimilarity of communities among units of finer scale within units of broader scale and (b) dis- similarity of communities among units of broader scale. We investigated compositional, phylogenetic/taxonomic and functional beta-diversity of compound communities of fleas and gamasid mites parasitic on small Palearctic mam- mals in a nested hierarchy at two spatial scales: (a) conti- nental scale (across the Palearctic) and (b) regional scale (across sites within Slovakia). At each scale, we analyzed beta-diversity among smaller units within larger units and among larger units with partitioning based on either geog- raphy or ecology. We asked (a) whether compositional, phylogenetic/taxonomic and functional dissimilarities of flea and mite assemblages are scale dependent; (b) how geographical (partitioning of sites according to geographic Communicated by George Heimpel. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00442-017-3876-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Elizabeth M. Warburton warburte@post.bgu.ac.il 1 Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Swiss Institute of Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben- Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, 84990 Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel 2 Institute of Parasitology and Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Lofflerova 10, 04001 Kosice, Slovakia 3 Omsk State University, 28 Adrianova Str., Omsk, Russian Federation 644077 4 Saint-Petersburg State University, 7/9 Universitetskaya Emb., Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation 199034 5 Laboratory of Arthropod-Borne Viral Infections, Omsk Research Institute of Natural Foci Infections, 7 Mira Str., Omsk, Russian Federation 644080 6 Omsk State Pedagogical University, 14 Tukhachevskogo Emb., Omsk, Russian Federation 644099 7 Wyler Department of Dryland Agriculture, French Associates Institute for Agriculture, French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben- Gurion University of the Negev, Sede-Boqer Campus, 84990 Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel