écologie des virus influenza aviaires en Camargue - IRD

« The ecological significance of manipulative parasites »of the textbook examples of manipulation (e.g., the spectacular impact of the trematodesDicrocoelium and Leucochloridium on ants and snails, respectively), we have no estimate atall of the effects on predation rates by definitive hosts. There is little doubt that manipulativeparasites change the strength of numerous links within the web of interactions making up anecosystem, even links that do not directly involve their hosts. A shift toward these broaderimpacts is the logical next step in the study of parasite manipulation within an ecosystemcontext. Such data will also be essential for building theoretical models exploring theevolution of life­history strategies within predator­prey­manipulative parasite communities.Unless we improve our understanding of the ecological significance of the wholebiodiversity, including that of manipulative parasites, we have an insufficient understandingof the functioning of ecosystems.Acknowledgements:This work was funded by “ANR blanc” grant to FT. CL is supported by a “Centre deRecherche de la Tour du Valat / Région Languedoc­Roussillon” PhD fellowship. We aregrateful to Kevin Lafferty and 4 referees for commenting on an earlier draft of this paper.REFERENCES1 Holmes, J.C. (1996) Parasites as threats to biodiversity in shrinking ecosystems. Biodiv.Cons. 5, 975­9832 Marcogliese, D.J. and Cone, D.K. (1997) Food webs: a plea for parasites. Trends Ecol.Evol. 12, 320­3253 Horwitz, P. and Wilcox, B.A. (2005) Parasites, ecosystems and sustainability: an ecologicaland complex systems perspective. Int. J. Parasitol. 35, 725­7324 Hudson, P.J. et al. (2006) Is a healthy ecosystem one that is rich in parasites? Trends Ecol.Evol. 21, 381­3855 Wood, C.L. et al. (2007) Parasites alter community structure. PNAS 104, 9335­93396 Kuris, A.M. et al. (2008) Ecosystem energetic implications of parasite and free­livingbiomass in three estuaries. Nature 454, 515­5187 Thomas, F. et al. (2005) Parasitism and Ecosystems. Oxford University Press203