Parasites in food webs: the ultimate missing links

Parasitism is the most common consumer strategy among organisms, yet only recently has there been a call for the inclusion of infectious disease agents in food webs. The value of this effort hinges on whether parasites affect food-web properties. Increasing evidence suggests that parasites have the...

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Autores principales: Lafferty, Kevin D, Allesina, Stefano, Arim, Matias, Briggs, Cherie J, De Leo, Giulio, Dobson, Andrew P, Dunne, Jennifer A, Johnson, Pieter T J, Kuris, Armand M, Marcogliese, David J, Martinez, Neo D, Memmott, Jane, Marquet, Pablo A, McLaughlin, John P, Mordecai, Erin A, Pascual, Mercedes, Poulin, Robert, Thieltges, David W
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2008
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2408649/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18462196
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2008.01174.x
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author Lafferty, Kevin D
Allesina, Stefano
Arim, Matias
Briggs, Cherie J
De Leo, Giulio
Dobson, Andrew P
Dunne, Jennifer A
Johnson, Pieter T J
Kuris, Armand M
Marcogliese, David J
Martinez, Neo D
Memmott, Jane
Marquet, Pablo A
McLaughlin, John P
Mordecai, Erin A
Pascual, Mercedes
Poulin, Robert
Thieltges, David W
author_facet Lafferty, Kevin D
Allesina, Stefano
Arim, Matias
Briggs, Cherie J
De Leo, Giulio
Dobson, Andrew P
Dunne, Jennifer A
Johnson, Pieter T J
Kuris, Armand M
Marcogliese, David J
Martinez, Neo D
Memmott, Jane
Marquet, Pablo A
McLaughlin, John P
Mordecai, Erin A
Pascual, Mercedes
Poulin, Robert
Thieltges, David W
author_sort Lafferty, Kevin D
collection PubMed
description Parasitism is the most common consumer strategy among organisms, yet only recently has there been a call for the inclusion of infectious disease agents in food webs. The value of this effort hinges on whether parasites affect food-web properties. Increasing evidence suggests that parasites have the potential to uniquely alter food-web topology in terms of chain length, connectance and robustness. In addition, parasites might affect food-web stability, interaction strength and energy flow. Food-web structure also affects infectious disease dynamics because parasites depend on the ecological networks in which they live. Empirically, incorporating parasites into food webs is straightforward. We may start with existing food webs and add parasites as nodes, or we may try to build food webs around systems for which we already have a good understanding of infectious processes. In the future, perhaps researchers will add parasites while they construct food webs. Less clear is how food-web theory can accommodate parasites. This is a deep and central problem in theoretical biology and applied mathematics. For instance, is representing parasites with complex life cycles as a single node equivalent to representing other species with ontogenetic niche shifts as a single node? Can parasitism fit into fundamental frameworks such as the niche model? Can we integrate infectious disease models into the emerging field of dynamic food-web modelling? Future progress will benefit from interdisciplinary collaborations between ecologists and infectious disease biologists.
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spelling pubmed-24086492008-06-09 Parasites in food webs: the ultimate missing links Lafferty, Kevin D Allesina, Stefano Arim, Matias Briggs, Cherie J De Leo, Giulio Dobson, Andrew P Dunne, Jennifer A Johnson, Pieter T J Kuris, Armand M Marcogliese, David J Martinez, Neo D Memmott, Jane Marquet, Pablo A McLaughlin, John P Mordecai, Erin A Pascual, Mercedes Poulin, Robert Thieltges, David W Ecol Lett Ideas and Perspectives Parasitism is the most common consumer strategy among organisms, yet only recently has there been a call for the inclusion of infectious disease agents in food webs. The value of this effort hinges on whether parasites affect food-web properties. Increasing evidence suggests that parasites have the potential to uniquely alter food-web topology in terms of chain length, connectance and robustness. In addition, parasites might affect food-web stability, interaction strength and energy flow. Food-web structure also affects infectious disease dynamics because parasites depend on the ecological networks in which they live. Empirically, incorporating parasites into food webs is straightforward. We may start with existing food webs and add parasites as nodes, or we may try to build food webs around systems for which we already have a good understanding of infectious processes. In the future, perhaps researchers will add parasites while they construct food webs. Less clear is how food-web theory can accommodate parasites. This is a deep and central problem in theoretical biology and applied mathematics. For instance, is representing parasites with complex life cycles as a single node equivalent to representing other species with ontogenetic niche shifts as a single node? Can parasitism fit into fundamental frameworks such as the niche model? Can we integrate infectious disease models into the emerging field of dynamic food-web modelling? Future progress will benefit from interdisciplinary collaborations between ecologists and infectious disease biologists. Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2008-06 /pmc/articles/PMC2408649/ /pubmed/18462196 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2008.01174.x Text en © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd/CNRS https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Reuse of this article is permitted in accordance with the Creative Commons Deed, Attribution 2.5, which does not permit commercial exploitation.
spellingShingle Ideas and Perspectives
Lafferty, Kevin D
Allesina, Stefano
Arim, Matias
Briggs, Cherie J
De Leo, Giulio
Dobson, Andrew P
Dunne, Jennifer A
Johnson, Pieter T J
Kuris, Armand M
Marcogliese, David J
Martinez, Neo D
Memmott, Jane
Marquet, Pablo A
McLaughlin, John P
Mordecai, Erin A
Pascual, Mercedes
Poulin, Robert
Thieltges, David W
Parasites in food webs: the ultimate missing links
title Parasites in food webs: the ultimate missing links
title_full Parasites in food webs: the ultimate missing links
title_fullStr Parasites in food webs: the ultimate missing links
title_full_unstemmed Parasites in food webs: the ultimate missing links
title_short Parasites in food webs: the ultimate missing links
title_sort parasites in food webs: the ultimate missing links
topic Ideas and Perspectives
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2408649/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18462196
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2008.01174.x
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