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Abstract Landscapes of fear can determine the dynamics of entire ecosystems. In response to perceived predation risk, prey can show physiological, behavioral, or morphological trait changes to avoid predation. This in turn can indirectly affect other species by modifying species interactions (e.g., altered feeding), with knock‐on effects, such as trophic cascades, on the wider ecosystem. While such indirect effects stemming from the fear of predation have received extensive attention for herbivore–plant and predator–prey interactions, much less is known about how they alter parasite–host interactions and wildlife diseases. In this synthesis, we present a conceptual framework for how predation risk—as perceived by organisms that serve as hosts—can affect parasite–host interactions, with implications for infectious disease dynamics. By basing our approach on recent conceptual advances with respect to predation risk effects, we aim to expand this general framework to include parasite–host interactions and diseases. We further identify pathways through which parasite–host interactions can be affected, for example, through altered parasite avoidance behavior or tolerance of hosts to infections, and discuss the wider relevance of predation risk for parasite and host populations, including heuristic projections to population‐level dynamics. Finally, we highlight the current unknowns, specifically the quantitative links from individual‐level processes to population dynamics and community structure, and emphasize approaches to address these knowledge gaps.
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Individual variation underlies large‐scale patterns: Host conditions and behavior affect parasitism
Abstract Identifying the factors that affect host–parasite interactions is essential for understanding the ecology and dynamics of vector‐borne diseases and may be an important component of predicting human disease risk. Characteristics of hosts themselves (e.g., body condition, host behavior, immune defenses) may affect the likelihood of parasitism. However, despite highly variable rates of parasitism and infection in wild populations, identifying widespread links between individual characteristics and heterogeneity in parasite acquisition has proven challenging because many zoonoses exist over wide geographic extents and exhibit both spatial and temporal heterogeneity in prevalence and individual and population‐level effects. Using seven years of data collected by the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), we examined relationships among individual host condition, behavior, and parasitism byIxodidticks in a keystone host species, the white‐footed mouse,Peromyscus leucopus. We found that individual condition, specifically sex, body mass, and reproductive condition, had both direct and indirect effects on parasitism by ticks, but the nature of these effects differed for parasitism by larval versus nymphal ticks. We also found that condition differences influenced rodent behavior, and behavior directly affected the rates of parasitism, with individual mice that moved farther being more likely to carry ticks. This study illustrates how individual‐level data can be examined using large‐scale datasets to draw inference and uncover broad patterns in host–parasite encounters at unprecedented spatial scales. Our results suggest that intraspecific variation in the movement ecology of hosts may affect host–parasite encounter rates and, ultimately, alter zoonotic disease risk through anthropogenic modifications and natural environmental conditions that alter host space use.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2110031
- PAR ID:
- 10588978
- Publisher / Repository:
- Ecological Society of America
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Ecology
- Volume:
- 106
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 0012-9658
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4478
