The effect of sterilizing diseases on host abundance and distribution along environmental gradients

Antonovics, Janis

doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.1256

Cited by 39 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…However, the field data from the present study of an alien microsporidium/fish parasite−host pair differs from theory-based patterns (e.g. Antonovics 2009). This corresponds with the results reported for the 20 yr accumulation of data from the studies on the aforementioned alien sacculinid/decapod crustacean pair (Innocenti & Galil 2011).…”

Section: Biogeographical and Ecological Attributescontrasting

confidence: 48%

Biology of a new xenoma-forming gonadotropic microsporidium in the invasive blotchfin dragonet Callionymus filamentosus

Diamant

Rothman²,

Goren³

et al. 2014

Dis. Aquat. Org.

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A gonadotropic microsporidian parasite, Obruspora papernae gen. et sp. nov. (Microsporidia: Enterocytozoonidae), is described from Callionymus filamentosus (Teleostei: Callionymidae) in the Mediterranean Sea. The host, a Red Sea invasive species which entered the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal, was first collected in the Levant Basin in 1953, whereas its parasite went unobserved until 2008. Analysis of partial small subunit ribosomal gene sequences (SSU rDNA) placed the new species within the Nucleospora, Desmozoon, and Paranucleospora clade, and as it differs from each of them, it is assigned to a new genus. The development of the parasite is described, and the biological mechanisms underlying this parasite−host system are analyzed. Prevalence of infection approached 80% in female samples throughout most of the year. Males showed no signs of infection, but parasite rDNA was detected in male internal organs. The parasite-induced xenomas progressively occupied and eventually replaced much of the ovary, in some cases producing effective castration. Despite high levels of parasite infection, current trawl fishery statistics indicate that the abundance of Mediterranean populations of the host remains high. The parasite impact on the host population dynamics is unclear. Possible effects of the new microsporidian parasite on the reproductive effort of C. filamentosus and the potential role of another parasite, the ectoparasitic copepod Lernanthropus callionymicola, as an additional host in the life cycle of O. papernae, require further investigation.

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Section: Biogeographical and Ecological Attributescontrasting

confidence: 48%

Biology of a new xenoma-forming gonadotropic microsporidium in the invasive blotchfin dragonet Callionymus filamentosus

Diamant

Rothman²,

Goren³

et al. 2014

Dis. Aquat. Org.

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“…Conversely, while to some extent previously downplayed, the importance of natural enemies in limiting the geographic ranges of the species that they use is coming increasingly to the fore (Case et al 2005). This latter perspective is developed in this special issue in papers on the roles of predation in range limitation (Holt & Barfield 2009), and more specifically the effects of sterilizing diseases (Antonovics 2009). In both cases, apparently counter-intuitive patterns can result from species interactions, including that predation can under some circumstances permit prey species to have larger ranges than would be the case in the absence of predation.…”

Section: Abstract: Ecology; Evolution; Geographic Rangementioning

confidence: 99%

Geographic range limits of species

2009

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Understanding the forms that the geographic range limits of species take, their causes and their consequences are key issues in ecology and evolutionary biology. They are also topics on which understanding is advancing rapidly. This themed issue of Proc. R. Soc. B focuses on the wide variety of current research perspectives on the nature and determinants of the limits to geographic ranges. The contributions address important themes, including the roles and influences of dispersal limitation, species interactions and physiological limitation, the broad patterns in the structure of geographic ranges, and the fundamental question of why at some point species no longer evolve the ability to overcome the factors constraining their distributions and thus fail to continue to spread. In this introduction, these contributions are placed in the wider context of these broad themes.

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“…A classic example is the introduction of reindeer onto St. Matthew Island, where freed of predation and with abundant food the population surged, depleted their food, and then plummeted to extinction (41). Pathogens can cause host extinctions (42), particularly where the host is abundant (43), precisely where the disease should increase most rapidly if initially rare. Such populations are initially within the establishment niche, so that populations initially increase.…”

Section: Niche Destructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bringing the Hutchinsonian niche into the 21st century: Ecological and evolutionary perspectives

Holt

2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

755

717

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G. Evelyn Hutchinson more than a half century ago proposed that one could characterize the ecological niche of a species as an abstract mapping of population dynamics onto an environmental space, the axes of which are abiotic and biotic factors that influence birth and death rates. If a habitat has conditions within a species' niche, a population should persist without immigration from external sources, whereas if conditions are outside the niche, it faces extinction. Analyses of species' niches are essential to understanding controls on species' geographical range limits and how these limits might shift in our rapidly changing world. Recent developments in ecology and evolutionary biology suggest it is time to revisit and refine Hutchinson's niche concept. After reviewing techniques for quantifying niches, I examine subtleties that arise because of impacts species have on their own environments, the density-dependent modulation of how individuals experience environments, and the interplay of dispersal and temporal heterogeneity in determining population persistence. Moreover, the evolutionary record over all time scales reveals a spectrum of rates of change in species' niches, from rapid niche evolution to profound niche conservatism. Substantial challenges revolving around the evolutionary dimension of the Hutchinsonian niche include quantifying the magnitude of evolved intraspecific and clade-level variation in niches and understanding the factors that govern where along the spectrum of potential evolutionary rates any given lineage lies. A growing body of theory provides elements of a conceptual framework for understanding niche conservatism and evolution, paving the way for an evolutionary theory of the niche.Allee effects ͉ ecological niche ͉ landscape texture ͉ niche conservatism ͉ niche evolution T he niche concept is central to ecology (1, 2). G. EvelynHutchinson in a seminal essay Ͼ50 years ago (1) proposed a formalization of the niche that still resonates in the minds of ecologists. After years of quiescence, there has been a recent upsurge of interest in species' niches (2, 3), driven in part by the urgency of predicting ecological responses to rapid environmental change. In this article, after summarizing Hutchinson's niche concept and sketching empirical approaches to quantifying niches, I will point out limitations in standard articulations of the Hutchinsonian niche. Some arise from its focus on a species solely when it is rare, which can belie the impact of positive density dependence and feedback processes on population persistence; others arise from its relative neglect of temporal variation and spatial dynamics; and yet others arise from genetic variation and evolution in the niche itself. These reflections will lead to alternative and complementary niche definitions, enriching and extending Hutchinson's concept.

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The effect of sterilizing diseases on host abundance and distribution along environmental gradients

Cited by 39 publications

References 48 publications

Biology of a new xenoma-forming gonadotropic microsporidium in the invasive blotchfin dragonet Callionymus filamentosus

Biology of a new xenoma-forming gonadotropic microsporidium in the invasive blotchfin dragonet Callionymus filamentosus

Geographic range limits of species

Bringing the Hutchinsonian niche into the 21st century: Ecological and evolutionary perspectives

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