Healthy but smaller herds: Predators reduce pathogen transmission in an amphibian assemblage.

ABSTRACT: Predators and pathogens are fundamental components of ecological communities that have the potential to influence each other via their interactions with victims and to initiate density- and trait-mediated effects, including trophic cascades. Despite this, experimental tests of the healthy herds hypothesis, wherein predators influence pathogen transmission, are rare. Moreover, no studies have separated effects mediated by density vs. traits. Using a semi-natural mesocosm experiment, we investigated the interactive effects of predatory dragonfly larvae (caged or lethal [free-ranging]) and a viral pathogen, ranavirus, on larval amphibians (grey treefrogs and northern leopard frogs). We determined the influence of predators on ranavirus transmission and the relative importance of density- and

SUBMITTER: Gallagher SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6786924 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature