Outbreak conditions and impacts of parasites in copepod populations

Abstract Although parasitism is vital for ecosystem dynamics and food webs, the population effects of parasitism in the marine pelagic have received little attention. Pelagic copepods link primary producers and higher consumers in marine food webs and host numerous parasites that may affect reproduc...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Even Sletteng Garvang, Lasse Krøger Eliassen, Josefin Titelman, Tom Andersen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2024-12-01
Series:Ecosphere
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70093
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1832584188998451200
author Even Sletteng Garvang
Lasse Krøger Eliassen
Josefin Titelman
Tom Andersen
author_facet Even Sletteng Garvang
Lasse Krøger Eliassen
Josefin Titelman
Tom Andersen
author_sort Even Sletteng Garvang
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Although parasitism is vital for ecosystem dynamics and food webs, the population effects of parasitism in the marine pelagic have received little attention. Pelagic copepods link primary producers and higher consumers in marine food webs and host numerous parasites that may affect reproduction, behavior, and survival. We present a simple model consisting of uninfected hosts, infected hosts, and the free‐living parasite stage and use it to investigate population dynamics and outbreak conditions of this host–parasite system. The host population growth is limited by a carrying capacity determined by resource availability and stoichiometric constraints. We parameterized the model for 10 copepod species with different traits but with the same Blastodinium‐like parasite. We derived a threshold ratio R0 for establishing infection, which showed that the parasite could invade and persist in all hosts. The ability of parasites to invade host populations largely depended on traits of free‐living spores and host density. From numerical analysis, we found that the parasite typically induced oscillations in the host population. Host traits were important for infection dynamics: High host growth rates mitigated some of the consequences of infection, and larger copepods were more susceptible to infection than smaller ones. The model implies that parasitism can impact the functional role of the copepod population in the ecosystem, and the system as a whole.
format Article
id doaj-art-910c5c1a60c9444b945e7541ed75d50d
institution Kabale University
issn 2150-8925
language English
publishDate 2024-12-01
publisher Wiley
record_format Article
series Ecosphere
spelling doaj-art-910c5c1a60c9444b945e7541ed75d50d2025-01-27T14:51:33ZengWileyEcosphere2150-89252024-12-011512n/an/a10.1002/ecs2.70093Outbreak conditions and impacts of parasites in copepod populationsEven Sletteng Garvang0Lasse Krøger Eliassen1Josefin Titelman2Tom Andersen3Department of Biosciences University of Oslo Oslo NorwayDepartment of Biosciences University of Oslo Oslo NorwayDepartment of Biosciences University of Oslo Oslo NorwayDepartment of Biosciences University of Oslo Oslo NorwayAbstract Although parasitism is vital for ecosystem dynamics and food webs, the population effects of parasitism in the marine pelagic have received little attention. Pelagic copepods link primary producers and higher consumers in marine food webs and host numerous parasites that may affect reproduction, behavior, and survival. We present a simple model consisting of uninfected hosts, infected hosts, and the free‐living parasite stage and use it to investigate population dynamics and outbreak conditions of this host–parasite system. The host population growth is limited by a carrying capacity determined by resource availability and stoichiometric constraints. We parameterized the model for 10 copepod species with different traits but with the same Blastodinium‐like parasite. We derived a threshold ratio R0 for establishing infection, which showed that the parasite could invade and persist in all hosts. The ability of parasites to invade host populations largely depended on traits of free‐living spores and host density. From numerical analysis, we found that the parasite typically induced oscillations in the host population. Host traits were important for infection dynamics: High host growth rates mitigated some of the consequences of infection, and larger copepods were more susceptible to infection than smaller ones. The model implies that parasitism can impact the functional role of the copepod population in the ecosystem, and the system as a whole.https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70093Blastodiniumcopepodsdisease modelingparasitismpelagic ecologyzooplankton
spellingShingle Even Sletteng Garvang
Lasse Krøger Eliassen
Josefin Titelman
Tom Andersen
Outbreak conditions and impacts of parasites in copepod populations
Ecosphere
Blastodinium
copepods
disease modeling
parasitism
pelagic ecology
zooplankton
title Outbreak conditions and impacts of parasites in copepod populations
title_full Outbreak conditions and impacts of parasites in copepod populations
title_fullStr Outbreak conditions and impacts of parasites in copepod populations
title_full_unstemmed Outbreak conditions and impacts of parasites in copepod populations
title_short Outbreak conditions and impacts of parasites in copepod populations
title_sort outbreak conditions and impacts of parasites in copepod populations
topic Blastodinium
copepods
disease modeling
parasitism
pelagic ecology
zooplankton
url https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70093
work_keys_str_mv AT evenslettenggarvang outbreakconditionsandimpactsofparasitesincopepodpopulations
AT lassekrøgereliassen outbreakconditionsandimpactsofparasitesincopepodpopulations
AT josefintitelman outbreakconditionsandimpactsofparasitesincopepodpopulations
AT tomandersen outbreakconditionsandimpactsofparasitesincopepodpopulations