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Body size and meta-community structure: the allometric scaling of parasitic worm communities in their mammalian hosts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 March 2016

GIULIO A. DE LEO ,
ANDREW P. DOBSON  and
MARINO GATTO
GIULIO A. DE LEO
Affiliation:
Woods Institute for the Environment and Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, Pacific Grove, California 93950, USA
ANDREW P. DOBSON*
Affiliation:
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544-1003, USA
MARINO GATTO
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Elettronica e Informazione, Politecnico di Milano, Via Ponzio 34/5, 23100 Milano, Italy
*
*Corresponding author: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544-1003, USA. E-mail: dobson@princeton.edu
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Summary

In this paper we derive from first principles the expected body sizes of the parasite communities that can coexist in a mammal of given body size. We use a mixture of mathematical models and known allometric relationships to examine whether host and parasite life histories constrain the diversity of parasite species that can coexist in the population of any host species. The model consists of one differential equation for each parasite species and a single density-dependent nonlinear equation for the affected host under the assumption of exploitation competition. We derive threshold conditions for the coexistence and competitive exclusion of parasite species using invasion criteria and stability analysis of the resulting equilibria. These results are then used to evaluate the range of parasites species that can invade and establish in a target host and identify the ‘optimal’ size of a parasite species for a host of a given body size; ‘optimal’ is defined as the body size of a parasite species that cannot be outcompeted by any other parasite species. The expected distributions of parasites body sizes in hosts of different sizes are then compared with those observed in empirical studies. Our analysis predicts the relative abundance of parasites of different size that establish in the host and suggests that increasing the ratio of parasite body size to host body size above a minimum threshold increases the persistence of the parasite population.

Keywords

intestinal nematodeswild mammal pathologybody sizeparasite communityinterspecific competitionlife-history strategiesallometric scalingbioenergetic requirements
Type
Special Issue Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 143 , Special Issue 7: Mathematical modelling of infectious diseases , June 2016 , pp. 880 - 893
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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