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"The potential for lethal infections that dramatically increase host mortality to have ecosystem-level effects is somewhat intuitive, especially when the hosts that are killed play a key role in the ecosystem. The researchers used a mathematical model and global meta-analysis to test the potential for helminth parasites-any of a group of common parasitic worms-to set off trophic cascades through both their lethal and sublethal effects on ruminant hosts. While other recent studies suggest that the kinds of parasites that eventually kill their hosts can trigger cascading effects on ecosystems in somewhat similar ways to predators, this study also considered the impacts of nonlethal parasitic infections.
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Just picture how much greenery one grazing deer could consume in an unfenced garden.īut each wild ruminant is a world unto itself for the multitude of parasites that occupy its gut and tissues as it goes about its regular grass-munching business. The team included biologists, wildlife veterinarians and epidemiologists, ecosystem ecologists, modelers and infectious disease specialists.ĭeer, bison, giraffes, gazelles and antelopes are hoofed animals known as ruminants: They're vegetarians whose eating habits have measurable impacts on local ecosystems. The research effort was conducted by an interdisciplinary and international working group funded by the Living Earth Collaborative, a partnership among Washington University, the Missouri Botanical Garden and the Saint Louis Zoo.
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"In bringing together experts in a transdisciplinary One Health approach, we bridged health, ecological and theoretical scientists to expand on traditional studies addressing impacts of parasites on individual hosts and host populations to better understand these impacts on the ecosystems where ruminant hosts and their parasites live," said Sharon Deem, director of the Saint Louis Zoo Institute for Conservation Medicine, a co-author of the new study. "This work helps fill a recognized knowledge gap regarding the ecological consequences of parasitic infections in natural ecosystems." "In this study, we show that pervasive parasitic infections reduce herbivory rates and can therefore trigger trophic cascades that impact plant communities," Koltz said. "Parasites are well known for their negative impacts on the physiology and behavior of individual hosts and host populations, but these effects are rarely considered within the context of the broader ecosystems they inhabit," said Amanda Koltz, senior scientist in biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, first author of the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.