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Infection by Parorchis acanthus (Trematoda) decreases grazing by the keystone gastropod, Littoraria irrorata
Parasites are well-known to alter the behavior of their hosts, but there is still a paucity of knowledge about how parasites modify the behavior of many ecologically influential host species. I studied the keystone grazer, the salt marsh periwinkle (Littoraria irrorata), to determine the influence o...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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PeerJ Inc.
2018
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5877444/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29607259 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4544 |
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author | Morton, Joseph P. |
author_facet | Morton, Joseph P. |
author_sort | Morton, Joseph P. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Parasites are well-known to alter the behavior of their hosts, but there is still a paucity of knowledge about how parasites modify the behavior of many ecologically influential host species. I studied the keystone grazer, the salt marsh periwinkle (Littoraria irrorata), to determine the influence of infection by the digenetic trematode, Parorchis acanthus, on its grazing behavior. Comparative laboratory grazing studies of wild-collected and experimentally infected snails revealed that Parorchis decreased grazing on live Spartina by more than 80%. Because of the large ecological influence of Littoraria in southern U.S. marshes, parasite modification of snail grazing may have ramifications for marsh ecosystem stability if parasite prevalence is sufficiently high. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5877444 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-58774442018-03-30 Infection by Parorchis acanthus (Trematoda) decreases grazing by the keystone gastropod, Littoraria irrorata Morton, Joseph P. PeerJ Animal Behavior Parasites are well-known to alter the behavior of their hosts, but there is still a paucity of knowledge about how parasites modify the behavior of many ecologically influential host species. I studied the keystone grazer, the salt marsh periwinkle (Littoraria irrorata), to determine the influence of infection by the digenetic trematode, Parorchis acanthus, on its grazing behavior. Comparative laboratory grazing studies of wild-collected and experimentally infected snails revealed that Parorchis decreased grazing on live Spartina by more than 80%. Because of the large ecological influence of Littoraria in southern U.S. marshes, parasite modification of snail grazing may have ramifications for marsh ecosystem stability if parasite prevalence is sufficiently high. PeerJ Inc. 2018-03-27 /pmc/articles/PMC5877444/ /pubmed/29607259 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4544 Text en ©2018 Morton http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited. |
spellingShingle | Animal Behavior Morton, Joseph P. Infection by Parorchis acanthus (Trematoda) decreases grazing by the keystone gastropod, Littoraria irrorata |
title | Infection by Parorchis acanthus (Trematoda) decreases grazing by the keystone gastropod, Littoraria irrorata |
title_full | Infection by Parorchis acanthus (Trematoda) decreases grazing by the keystone gastropod, Littoraria irrorata |
title_fullStr | Infection by Parorchis acanthus (Trematoda) decreases grazing by the keystone gastropod, Littoraria irrorata |
title_full_unstemmed | Infection by Parorchis acanthus (Trematoda) decreases grazing by the keystone gastropod, Littoraria irrorata |
title_short | Infection by Parorchis acanthus (Trematoda) decreases grazing by the keystone gastropod, Littoraria irrorata |
title_sort | infection by parorchis acanthus (trematoda) decreases grazing by the keystone gastropod, littoraria irrorata |
topic | Animal Behavior |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5877444/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29607259 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4544 |
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