Parasite Ecology 1 Flashcards
What is Ecology
The study of relationships between organisms and their environments, focusing on environmental factors that regulate organism numbers and distributions.
How does ecology apply to parasites?
For parasites, ecology involves understanding the host as an environment and examining how parasites exploit host resources and regulate their populations within the host.
What are the three main features of a parasite’s habitat?
- Parasites occupy multiple habitats in succession, 2. Parasites have microhabitat preferences within hosts, and 3. Parasites often inhabit specific host species.
What is the ecological niche concept in relation to parasites?
A niche includes a parasite’s specific environmental needs like temperature, moisture, food, and predators, defining its unique relationship with the environment.
What is host specificity, and why is it important?
Host specificity means parasites do not inhabit all host species or microhabitats, often due to filters like encounter and compatibility.
What is the encounter filter?
A factor in host specificity where a parasite and host live in different environments, preventing them from interacting.
Define infrapopulation, component population, and suprapopulation.
Infrapopulation: parasites in a single host; Component population: sum of infrapopulations in a host species; Suprapopulation: all component populations in an ecosystem.
What is an aggregated distribution in parasite ecology?
A common pattern where most hosts are uninfected or lightly infected, with a few hosts heavily infected, showing a “law” of parasite ecology.
What is density-independent regulation in parasite populations?
Factors like temperature or rainfall that affect parasite populations regardless of population size.
What are density-dependent factors?
Factors that increase in strength as population size increases, such as food supply.
Name and describe three types of density-dependent regulation in parasite populations.
. Decision-Dependent: parasites avoid infected hosts; 2. Host Death-Dependent: high infection leads to host death, reducing population; 3. Competition-Dependent: limited resources create competition.
What is interference competition in parasites?
Direct aggression between individuals, such as attacks by trematodes or larval combat in wasps, often more common between species.
Describe resource competition among parasites.
Parasites compete for limited resources (like nutrients), leading to smaller individuals in high-density conditions.
What is apparent competition in parasites?
An indirect form of competition where the host’s immune response, triggered by parasite density, limits parasite populations.
Preferences within host example
Rat tapewom undergoes a daily circadium migration
-tapeworms move to where the food is migrating to through out the day
