Apparent competition drives community-wide parasitism rates and changes in host abundance across ecosystem boundaries

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 7; no. 1; p. 12644
• Main Authors: Frost, Carol M., Peralta, Guadalupe, Rand, Tatyana A., Didham, Raphael K., Varsani, Arvind, Tylianakis, Jason M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 31.08.2016; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/158/1745; 631/158/2463; 631/158/853/2006; Animals; Bacillus thuringiensis - pathogenicity; Biological control; Biological Control Agents - administration & dosage; Biology; Competition; Crop dusting; Ecology; Ecosystem biology; Female; Food Chain; Food chains; Food webs; Forecasting - methods; Forest management; Forests; Herbivores; Herbivory - physiology; Host-Parasite Interactions; Humanities and Social Sciences; Insecticides; Invertebrates - microbiology; Invertebrates - physiology; Larva - microbiology; Larva - physiology; Life sciences; Male; multidisciplinary; Mutualism; Native species; New Zealand; Parasitism; Population Dynamics - trends; Population growth; Predation; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Trees - parasitology; Trees - physiology; Wasps; New Zealand; Australia; United States > US; Western Australia Australia

Species have strong indirect effects on others, and predicting these effects is a central challenge in ecology. Prey species sharing an enemy (predator or parasitoid) can be linked by apparent competition, but it is unknown whether this process is strong enough to be a community-wide structuring mec...