Parasites Affect Food Web Structure Primarily through Increased Diversity and Complexity

Dunne, Jennifer A.; Lafferty, Kevin D.; Dobson, Andrew; Hechinger, Ryan F.; Kuris, Armand M.; Martinez, Neo D.; McLaughlin, John P.; Mouritsen, Kim N.; Poulin, Robert; Reise, Karsten; Stouffer, Daniel B.; Thieltges, David W.; Williams, Richard J.; Zander, C. Dieter

doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001579

Cited by 246 publications

(357 citation statements)

References 96 publications

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“…Nevertheless, these structural changes are similar to the trends that emerge when comparing webs with different numbers of free‐living species (Dunne et al . 2013a) and follow known patterns of scaling with species richness (Riede et al . 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…They participate in a large proportion of feeding links (henceforth ‘links’) (Lafferty, Dobson & Kuris 2006; Dunne et al . 2013a) and exhibit comparable diversity and biomass to free‐living species (Dobson et al . 2008; Kuris et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, at least one study has concluded that parasites tend to have broader and less‐contiguous prey ranges than free‐living species (Dunne et al . 2013a). Despite these important differences, however, that same study suggested that parasites and free‐living species can appear to have similar effects on food web structure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, when parasites are added to a food web without including concomitant predation, species richness and number of links necessarily increase and connectance, link density and degree distributions are thereby altered (Dunne et al . 2013a). Nevertheless, these structural changes are similar to the trends that emerge when comparing webs with different numbers of free‐living species (Dunne et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, by adding more links but no additional species, link density and connectance must necessarily increase (Dunne et al . 2013a). Importantly, this increase in connectance did not fit the scaling pattern observed in free‐living webs and was observed when connectance was adjusted to account for the exclusion of concomitant predation (Dunne et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Concomitant predation on parasites is highly variable but constrains the ways in which parasites contribute to food web structure

Cirtwill

Stouffer

2015

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Summary Previous analyses of empirical food webs (the networks of who eats whom in a community) have revealed that parasites exert a strong influence over observed food web structure and alter many network properties such as connectance and degree distributions. It remains unclear, however, whether these community‐level effects are fully explained by differences in the ways that parasites and free‐living species interact within a food web.To rigorously quantify the interrelationship between food web structure, the types of species in a web and the distinct types of feeding links between them, we introduce a shared methodology to quantify the structural roles of both species and feeding links. Roles are quantified based on the frequencies with which a species (or link) appears in different food web motifs – the building blocks of networks.We hypothesized that different types of species (e.g. top predators, basal resources, parasites) and different types of links between species (e.g. classic predation, parasitism, concomitant predation on parasites along with their hosts) will show characteristic differences in their food web roles.We found that parasites do indeed have unique structural roles in food webs. Moreover, we demonstrate that different types of feeding links (e.g. parasitism, predation or concomitant predation) are distributed differently in a food web context. More than any other interaction type, concomitant predation appears to constrain the roles of parasites. In contrast, concomitant predation links themselves have more variable roles than any other type of interaction.Together, our results provide a novel perspective on how both species and feeding link composition shape the structure of an ecological community and vice versa.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Concomitant predation on parasites is highly variable but constrains the ways in which parasites contribute to food web structure

Cirtwill

Stouffer

2015

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Populations and Communities

2021

Tropical Marine Ecology

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When slower is faster

Gershenson

Helbing

2015

Complexity

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The slower is faster (SIF) effect occurs when a system performs worse as its components try to do better. Thus, a moderate individual efficiency actually leads to a better systemic performance. The SIF effect takes place in a variety of phenomena. We review studies and examples of the SIF effect in pedestrian dynamics, vehicle traffic, traffic light control, logistics, public transport, social dynamics, ecological systems, and adaptation. Drawing on these examples, we generalize common features of the SIF effect and suggest possible future lines of research

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Parasites Affect Food Web Structure Primarily through Increased Diversity and Complexity

Abstract: Parasites primarily affect food web structure through changes to diversity and complexity. However, compared to free-living species, their life-history traits lead to more complex feeding niches and altered motifs.

Cited by 246 publications

References 96 publications

Concomitant predation on parasites is highly variable but constrains the ways in which parasites contribute to food web structure

Concomitant predation on parasites is highly variable but constrains the ways in which parasites contribute to food web structure

Populations and Communities

When slower is faster

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