Richards Robert L, Drake John M, Ezenwa Vanessa O
Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA.
Center for the Ecology of Infectious Diseases, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA.
Ecol Lett. 2022 Feb;25(2):278-294. doi: 10.1111/ele.13919. Epub 2021 Nov 5.
Ecological theory suggests that predators can either keep prey populations healthy by reducing parasite burdens or alternatively, increase parasitism in prey. To quantify the overall magnitude and direction of the effect of predation on parasitism in prey observed in practice, we conducted a meta-analysis of 47 empirical studies. We also examined how study attributes, including parasite type and life cycle, habitat type, study design, and whether predators were able to directly consume prey contributed to variation in the predator-prey-parasite interaction. We found that the overall effect of predation on parasitism differed between parasites and parasitoids and that whether consumptive effects were present, and whether a predator was a non-host spreader of parasites, were the most important traits predicting the parasite response. Our results suggest that the mechanistic basis of predator-prey interactions strongly influences the effects of predators on parasites and that these effects, although context dependent, are predictable.
生态理论表明，捕食者既可以通过减轻寄生虫负担来保持猎物种群的健康，也可以增加猎物中的寄生虫感染率。为了量化在实际观察中捕食对猎物寄生虫感染的总体影响程度和方向，我们对47项实证研究进行了荟萃分析。我们还研究了包括寄生虫类型和生命周期、栖息地类型、研究设计，以及捕食者是否能够直接捕食猎物等研究属性，是如何导致捕食者 - 猎物 - 寄生虫相互作用产生差异的。我们发现，捕食对寄生虫感染的总体影响在寄生虫和寄生蜂之间存在差异，并且是否存在消耗性影响，以及捕食者是否为寄生虫的非宿主传播者，是预测寄生虫反应的最重要特征。我们的结果表明，捕食者 - 猎物相互作用的机制基础强烈影响捕食者对寄生虫的影响，并且这些影响虽然取决于具体情况，但却是可预测的。
