Density- and trait-mediated effects of a parasite and a predator in a tri-trophic food web.

ABSTRACT: Despite growing interest in ecological consequences of parasitism in food webs, relatively little is known about effects of parasites on long-term population dynamics of non-host species or about whether such effects are density or trait mediated. We studied a tri-trophic food chain comprised of (i) a bacterial basal resource (Serratia fonticola), (ii) an intermediate consumer (Paramecium caudatum), (iii) a top predator (Didinium nasutum) and (iv) a parasite of the intermediate consumer (Holospora undulata). A fully factorial experimental manipulation of predator and parasite presence/absence was combined with analyses of population dynamics, modelling and analyses of host (Paramecium) morphology and behaviour. Predation and parasitism each reduced the abundance of the intermediate consume

SUBMITTER: Banerji A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4674981 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature