Table of Contents
- 1 What is the ecological importance of parasites?
- 2 Why are parasites so diverse?
- 3 How do parasites promote biodiversity?
- 4 How does parasitism affect an ecosystem?
- 5 What would it take to describe the global diversity of parasites?
- 6 Which group of parasites is the most diverse?
- 7 What is in the ecosystem?
- 8 What is the dilution effect ecology?
What is the ecological importance of parasites?
Why are parasites ecologically important? Parasites can shape community structure through their effects on trophic interactions, food webs, competition, biodiversity, and keystone species.
Why are parasites so diverse?
The distribution of parasite diversity among host taxa does not simply reflect the species diversity of the host taxa themselves; life history and ecological traits of hosts appear to play important roles. Certain features of parasites may also be associated with speciation and diversification.
What is parasite ecology?
Parasite ecologists study the ecology of parasites: the interactions between parasites (or pathogens), hosts, and their (abiotic and biotic) environments.
How do parasites promote biodiversity?
Parasites increase within-host trait diversity by altering host phenotypes, including host morphology, behavior, and stoichiometry, and they can also increase trait diversity within a community by facilitating coexistence among competing species.
How does parasitism affect an ecosystem?
Parasitism has major impacts on host growth, allometry and reproduction, which lead to changes in competitive balances between host and nonhost species and therefore affect community structure, vegetation zonation and population dynamics.
What’s the purpose of parasites?
Consider that parasites play an important role in regulating the populations of their hosts and the balance of the overall ecosystem. First, they kill off some organisms and make others vulnerable to predators.
What would it take to describe the global diversity of parasites?
Describing the global diversity of parasites involves two major processes: documenting and describing diversity through species descriptions, geographic distributions, host associations, etc.; and consolidating and digitizing lists of valid taxonomic names and synonyms (e.g. ITIS, Catalogue of Life, WoRMS).
Which group of parasites is the most diverse?
Nematoda (Roundworms) Phylum Nematoda (the roundworms) is a diverse group containing more than 15,000 species, of which several are important human parasites (Figure 1).
What is parasite ecological niche?
An ecological niche is a multidimensional summary of tolerances and requirements of a species. As the host provides so many of the parasite’s needs, many parasites are degenerate. The niche for an ectoparasite is on the surface of its host, whereas an endoparasite lives within the host.
What is in the ecosystem?
An ecosystem is a geographic area where plants, animals, and other organisms, as well as weather and landscape, work together to form a bubble of life. Ecosystems contain biotic or living, parts, as well as abiotic factors, or nonliving parts. Abiotic factors include rocks, temperature, and humidity.
What is the dilution effect ecology?
The “dilution effect” implies that where species vary in susceptibility to infection by a pathogen, higher diversity often leads to lower infection prevalence in hosts. For directly transmitted pathogens, non-host species may “dilute” infection directly (1) and indirectly (2).
Do parasites affect plants and animals?
Types of parasites. Parasites are plants or animals that live in or on another living thing, getting their food from it while it is still alive. In fact, some parasites eventually cause their hosts to die.