TY - JOUR
T1 - Resource tracking in marine parasites
T2 - Going with the flow?
AU - THOMPSON, Ross
AU - Poulin, Robert
AU - Mouritsen, Kim N.
AU - Thieltges, David W.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - Understanding how diversity interacts with energy supply is of broad ecological interest. Most studies to date have investigated patterns within trophic levels, refl ecting a lack of food webs which include information on energy fl ow. We added parasites to a published marine energy-fl ow food web, to explore whether parasite diversity is correlated with energy flow to host taxa. Parasite diversity was high with 36 parasite taxa aff ecting 40 of the 51 animal taxa. Adding parasites increased the number of trophic links per species, trophic link strength, connectance, and food chain lengths. Th ere was evidence of an asymptotic relationship between energy fl owing through a food chain and parasite diversity, although there were clear outliers. High parasite diversity was associated with host taxa which were highly connected within the food web. Th is suggests that energy flow through a taxon may favour parasite diversity, up to a maximal value. Th e evolutionary and energetic basis for that limitation is of key interest in understanding the basis for parasite diversity in natural food webs and thus their role in food web dynamics.
AB - Understanding how diversity interacts with energy supply is of broad ecological interest. Most studies to date have investigated patterns within trophic levels, refl ecting a lack of food webs which include information on energy fl ow. We added parasites to a published marine energy-fl ow food web, to explore whether parasite diversity is correlated with energy flow to host taxa. Parasite diversity was high with 36 parasite taxa aff ecting 40 of the 51 animal taxa. Adding parasites increased the number of trophic links per species, trophic link strength, connectance, and food chain lengths. Th ere was evidence of an asymptotic relationship between energy fl owing through a food chain and parasite diversity, although there were clear outliers. High parasite diversity was associated with host taxa which were highly connected within the food web. Th is suggests that energy flow through a taxon may favour parasite diversity, up to a maximal value. Th e evolutionary and energetic basis for that limitation is of key interest in understanding the basis for parasite diversity in natural food webs and thus their role in food web dynamics.
U2 - 10.1111/j.1600-0706.2012.00245.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1600-0706.2012.00245.x
M3 - Article
SN - 0030-1299
VL - 122
SP - 1187
EP - 1194
JO - OIKOS
JF - OIKOS
IS - 8
ER -