Behavioural mechanisms underlying parasite-mediated competition for refuges in a coral reef fish.

ABSTRACT: Parasites have been increasingly recognized as participants in indirect ecological interactions, including those mediated by parasite-induced changes to host behaviour (trait-mediated indirect interactions or TMIIs). In most documented examples, host behaviours altered by parasites increase susceptibility to predation because the predator is also a host (host-manipulation). Here, we test for a TMII in which a parasitic copepod modifies the predator-prey interaction between a small goby host and several larger predatory fish. Gobies compete for crevices in the reef to avoid predation and goby mortality increases more rapidly with increasing refuge shortage for parasitized gobies than for those free of parasites. We found interactive effects of refuge shortage and parasitism on two behaviour

SUBMITTER: Forrester GE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6820773 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature