Horn Collin J, Luong Lien T, Visscher Darcy R
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Dalhousie University Halifax Nova Scotia Canada.
Department of Biological Sciences University of Alberta Edmonton Alberta Canada.
Ecol Evol. 2024 Aug 13;14(8):e70079. doi: 10.1002/ece3.70079. eCollection 2024 Aug.
Predators negatively affect prey outside of direct attack, and these nonconsumptive effects (NCEs) may cause over half the impacts of predators on prey populations. This "ecology of fear" framework has been extended to host-parasite interactions. The NCEs of parasites are thought to be small relative to those of predators. However, recent research shows ectoparasites exert NCEs on multiple life stages of . In this study, we apply recent data to a matrix-based model of fly populations experiencing infection/consumption and NCEs from an ectoparasitic mite. We found the NCEs of parasites on larvae, which are not actively parasitized, decreased the size of simulated host populations. By contrast, the NCEs on adult flies increased population size through compensatory egg production. The negative NCEs on larvae outweighed the positive effects on adults to reduce population size. This study suggests that parasitic NCEs can suppress host populations independent of infection.
捕食者在直接攻击之外也会对猎物产生负面影响，而这些非消费性影响（NCEs）可能导致捕食者对猎物种群的影响超过一半。这种“恐惧生态学”框架已扩展到宿主 - 寄生虫相互作用。寄生虫的非消费性影响被认为相对于捕食者较小。然而，最近的研究表明，外寄生虫会对多个生命阶段产生非消费性影响。在本研究中，我们将最新数据应用于一个基于矩阵的苍蝇种群模型，该模型考虑了感染/消耗以及来自外寄生螨的非消费性影响。我们发现，未被主动寄生的幼虫受到的寄生虫非消费性影响会减小模拟宿主种群的规模。相比之下，成年苍蝇受到的非消费性影响通过补偿性产卵增加了种群规模。幼虫受到的负面非消费性影响超过了对成虫的积极影响，从而导致种群规模减小。这项研究表明，寄生性非消费性影响可以在不依赖感染的情况下抑制宿主种群。
