OOS 60

Parasites in Trophic Networks: Complex Life Cycles, Coinfection Dynamics, and Community Structure

The majority of trophic interactions in natural systems are parasitic interactions. The dynamical and structuring roles of parasites in ecosystems, both inside individual hosts and within entire ecological communities, have, however, remained elusive. Parasites often exhibit complex life cycles, inherently linking potentially independent components in ecosystems. Parasites also impact their host species through various mechanisms, including increasing host mortality, immunomodulation, causing host castration, and the competitive use of host resources. The first focus places parasites in the center of trophic network structures, while the second focus views parasites as integral actors in internal host dynamics. In both cases, parasites’ roles in trophic network dynamics and structure are of interest ecologically and evolutionarily. Parasites and parasite-host dynamics are at the heart of epidemiology and much of ecology. In this session, we place the ecological implications of parasite-host, within-host, and trophic interactions including parasites in the context of ecosystem dynamics and structure. This session connects the role of parasitism from the level of individual hosts (looking at within-host food webs and co-infection dynamics), to the level of population dynamics, up to the level of entire ecosystems (focusing on food webs including parasites). We explore current insights and future directions regarding how parasites contribute to the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of communities, be it the community of within-host immune cells and parasites, or communities at the level of ecosystems. Aside from promising an extremely interesting discussion on the role of parasites in ecology, this session offers a broad integration of our ecological view on parasites as players in extended networks.