Parasites entangled in food webs.
Food webs are a fundamental concept in ecology in which parasites have been virtually ignored. In a recent article, Lafferty et al. address this imbalance, finding that the inclusion of parasites in food webs could be of greater importance to ecosystem stability than was previously thought. Furthermore, the bottom of the food chain is perhaps no longer the most dangerous place to be.
Wood
Matthew J
MJ
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK. matt.wood@zoo.ox.ac.uk
D000818:Animals; D004463:Ecology / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D020387:Food Chain; D008954:Models, Biological; D010271:Parasites / Q000502:physiology*; D011235:Predatory Behavior