SynthesisEcology letters2023
Resetting our expectations for parasites and their effects on species interactions: a meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Ecology letters, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Evolution and Ecology of Host Manipulation in Helminth Parasites: A Phylogenetic Meta-Analysis.Ecology letters · 2026Pooled it
- Meta-analysis finds large variation but no general patterns in the relationship between climate and parasitism in terrestrial animals.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Pooled it
- Effects of thermal fluctuations on biological processes: a meta-analysis of experiments manipulating thermal variability.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Pooled it
- Resetting our expectations for parasites and their effects on species interactions: a meta-analysis.Ecology letters · 2023Pooled it
- Horizontal transfers of polydnavirus segments extend the known range of parasitoid attacks to stick insects and orthopterans.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- A parasite-inclusive food web for the California rocky intertidal zone.Scientific data · 2026Article
- Corallorhiza striata is the first example of a pseudocopulatory orchid in North America and an instance of "double deception" in fully mycoheterotrophic plants.American journal of botany · 2026Article
- Parasite-mediated inbreeding depression in wild red deer.Heredity · 2025Article
- Mixing in Moderation: Slow Transmission of Non-Local Macroparasites Following a Population Augmentation of an Endangered Australian Skink.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Evidence for the importance of trophically transmitted parasites and predation at the lower latitudes of species ranges.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Noninvasive Methods Unveil the Trophic Transmission of the TapewormEcology and evolution · 2024Article
- Opposing life history strategies allow grass shrimp parasites to avoid a conflict of interest.Oecologia · 2024Article
- Host and parasite identity interact in scale-dependent fashion to determine parasite community structure.Oecologia · 2024Article
- Parasite manipulation of host phenotypes inferred from transcriptional analyses in a trematode-amphipod system.Molecular ecology · 2023Article
- Definitions of parasitism, considering its potentially opposing effects at different levels of hierarchical organization.Parasitology · 2023Review
- EXPERIMENTAL INFECTIONS WITH EUHAPLORCHIS CALIFORNIENSIS AND A SMALL CYATHOCOTYLID INCREASE CONSPICUOUS BEHAVIORS IN CALIFORNIA KILLIFISH (FUNDULUS PARVIPINNIS).The Journal of parasitology · 2023Article
- Interspecific host competition and parasite virulence evolution.Biology letters · 2023Article
- Editorial: Parasitism: the good, the bad and the ugly.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Despite the ubiquitous nature of parasitism, how parasitism alters the outcome of host-species interactions such as competition, mutualism and predation remains unknown. Using a phylogenetically informed meta-analysis of 154 studies, we examined how the mean and variance in the outcomes of species interactions differed between parasitized and non-parasitized hosts. Overall, parasitism did not significantly affect the mean or variance of host-species interaction outcomes, nor did the shared evolutionary histories of hosts and parasites have an effect. Instead, there was considerable variation in outcomes, ranging from strongly detrimental to strongly beneficial for infected hosts. Trophically-transmitted parasites increased the negative effects of predation, parasites increased and decreased the negative effects of interspecific competition for parasitized and non-parasitized heterospecifics, respectively, and parasites had particularly strong negative effects on host species interactions in freshwater and marine habitats, yet were beneficial in terrestrial environments. Our results illuminate the diverse ways in which parasites modify critical linkages in ecological networks, implying that whether the cumulative effects of parasitism are considered detrimental depends not only on the interactions between hosts and their parasites but also on the many other interactions that hosts experience.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.