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The metabolic theory of ecology (MTE) provides a general framework of allometric and thermal dependence that may be useful for predicting how climate change will affect disease spread. Using Daphnia magna and a microsporidian gut parasite, we conducted two experiments across a wide thermal range and fitted transmission models that utilize MTE submodels for transmission parameters. We decomposed transmission into contact rate and probability of infection and further decomposed probability of infection into a product of gut residence time (GRT) and per-parasite infection rate of gut cells. Contact rate generally increased with temperature and scaled positively with body size, whereas infection rate had a narrow hump-shaped thermal response and scaled negatively with body size. GRT increased with host size and was longest at extreme temperatures. GRT and infection rate inside the gut combined to create a 3.5 times higher probability of infection for the smallest relative to the largest individuals. Small temperature changes caused large differences in transmission. We also fit several alternative transmission models to data at individual temperatures. The more complex models—parasite antagonism or synergism and host heterogeneity—did not substantially improve the fit to the data. Our results show that transmission rate is the product of several distinct thermal and allometric functions that can be predicted continuously across temperature and host size using the MTE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological interactions shape and are shaped by the evolution of interacting species. Mathematical models and empirical work have explored the multiple ways coevolution could occur in small sets of species, revealing that the addition of even one species can change the coevolutionary dynamics of a pairwise interaction. As a consequence, one of the current challenges in evolutionary biology is to understand how species-rich assemblages evolve and co-evolve as networks of interacting species. We combined an adaptive network framework, a trait evolutionary model, and data on network structure to study how network organization affects and is affected by selection in antagonistic interactions such as parasitism, predation, and herbivory. We explored how selection imposed by interactions shapes the evolution of attack and defense traits, parameterizing our models with structural information from 31 empirical assemblages of antagonistic species. In the simulations, the form of coevolution in antagonistic interactions is affected by the intensity and asymmetry of the selection imposed by the interacting partners. Transient escalation in attack and defensive traits was the most prevalent form of coevolutionary dynamics, especially in networks formed by modules of highly interacting species. Fluctuating evolution of traits was observed when the intensity of selection was higher in exploiters than in victims and was especially favored in nested networks. At the species level, highly connected species experienced higher temporal variation in selection regardless of the network structure, resulting in high trait mismatching with their partners. The mismatched patterns of highly connected species, in turn, may explain the emergence of modularity in antagonistic interactions in which selection is stronger on exploiters than on their victims. Our results highlight the roles of different aspects of network structure on antagonistic coevolution: nestedness shapes coevolutionary dynamics, whereas modularity emerges as one outcome of coevolutionary dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of male traits that inflict direct harm on females during mating interactions can result in a so-called tragedy of the commons, where selfish male strategies depress population viability. This tragedy of the commons can be magnified by intralocus sexual conflict (IaSC) whenever alleles that reduce fecundity when expressed in females spread in the population because of their benefits in males. We evaluated this prediction by detailed phenotyping of 73 isofemale lines of the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus. We quantified genetic variation in life history andmorphology, as well as associated covariance in male and female adult reproductive success. In parallel, we created replicated artificial populations of each line and measured their productivity. Genetic constraints limited independent trait expression in the sexes, and we identified several instances of sexually antagonistic covariance between traits and fitness, signifying IaSC. Population productivity was strongly positively correlated to female adult reproductive success but uncorrelated with male reproductive success. Moreover, male (female) phenotypic optima for several traits under sexually antagonistic selection were exhibited by the genotypes with the lowest (highest) population productivity. Our study forms a direct link between individual-level sex-specific selection and population demography and places life-history traits at the epicenter of these dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bird eggs show striking diversity in color and pattern. One explanation for this is that interactions between avian brood parasites and their hosts drive egg phenotype evolution. Brood parasites lay their eggs in the nests of other species, their hosts. Many hosts defend their nests against parasitism by rejecting foreign eggs, which selects for parasite eggs that mimic those of the host. In theory, this may in turn select for changes in host egg phenotypes over time to facilitate discrimination of parasite eggs. Here, we test for the first time whether parasitism by brood parasites has led to increased divergence in egg phenotype among host species. Using Australian host and nonhost species and objective measures of egg color and pattern, we show that (i) hosts of brood parasites have higher within-species variation in egg pattern than nonhosts, supporting previous findings in other systems, and (ii) host species have diverged more in their egg patterns than nonhost species after controlling for divergence time. Overall, our results suggest that brood parasitism has played a significant role in the evolution of egg diversity and that these effects are evident, not only within species, but also among species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of physiological mechanisms into life-history theory is an emerging frontier in our understanding of the constraints and drivers of life-history evolution. Dynamic patterns of antagonism between developmental and immunological pathways in juvenile insects illustrate the importance of mechanisms for determining life-history strategy optima in the face of trade-offs. For example, developmental interference occurs when developmental processes transiently take priority over resources or pathway architecture, preventing allocation to immunity or other traits. We designed a within-host model of infected larval development to explore the impact of developmental dynamics on optimal resource mobilization and allocation strategies as well as on larval resistance and tolerance phenotypes. The model incorporates mechanism-inspired functional forms of developmental interference with immunity against parasites that attack specific larval stages. We find that developmental interference generally increases optimal investment in constitutive immunity and decreases optimal resource mobilization rates, but the results are sensitive to the developmental stage at first infection. Moreover, developmental interference reduces resistance but generally increases tolerance of infection. We demonstrate the potential impact of these dynamics on empirical estimates of host susceptibility and discuss the general implications of incorporating realistic physiological mechanisms and developmental dynamics for life-history theory in insects and other organisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fundamental assumption of coexistence theory is that competition inevitably decreases species diversity. Consequently, in the quest to understand the ecological regulators of diversity, there has been a great deal of focus on processes with the potential to reduce competitive exclusion. However, the notion that competition must decrease diversity is largely based on the outcome of two-species interaction experiments and models, despite the fact that species rarely interact only in pairs in natural systems. In a field experiment, we found that competition among native perennial plants in multispecies assemblages was far weaker than competition between those same species in pairwise arrangements and that indirect interactions appeared to weaken direct competitive effects. These results suggest that community assembly theory based on pairwise approaches may overestimate the strength of competition and likelihood of competitive exclusion in species-rich communities. We also found that Centaurea stoebe, a North American invader, retained strong competitive effects when competing against North American natives in both pairwise and multi-species assemblages. Our experimental results support an emerging body of theory suggesting that complex networks of competing species may generate strong indirect interactions that can maintain diversity and that ecological differentiation may not be necessary to attenuate competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most wild animals face concurrent challenges by multiple infectious organisms, and immunological responses triggered by some parasites may increase susceptibility to other infectious agents. Immune-mediated interactions among parasites have been investigated among individuals in a population, but less is known about broader comparative patterns. We investigated the "macro-micro facilitation hypothesis" that higher helminth prevalence in a host species provides greater opportunities for intracellular parasites to invade, resulting in higher richness of intracellular microparasites. We obtained data on average helminth prevalence for 70 primate hosts, along with data on richness of intra- and extracellular infectious organisms. Using Bayesian phylogenetic methods, we found that primate species with higher overall helminth prevalence harbored more species of intracellular microparasites, while the positive association between helminth prevalence and extracellular microparasite species richness was weaker. The relationships held after controlling for potentially confounding variables, but associations were not found in focused tests of prevalence for six genera of well-studied helminths. The magnitude of support and effect sizes for overall helminth prevalence on intracellular microparasite species richness was similar to support for other well recognized ecological and life-history drivers of parasite species richness. Our findings therefore suggest that intrahost parasite interactions are as important as some ecological characteristics of hosts in accounting for parasite richness across host species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herbivores eat the leaves that a plant needs for photosynthesis. However, the degree of antagonism between plant and herbivore may depend critically on the timing of their interactions and the intrinsic value of a leaf. We present a model that investigates whether and when the timing of plant defense and herbivore feeding activity can be optimized by evolution so that their interactions can move from antagonistic to neutral.We assume that temporal changes in environmental conditions will affect intrinsic leaf value, measured as potential carbon gain. Using optimal-control theory, we model herbivore evolution, first in response to fixed plant strategies and then under coevolutionary dynamics in which the plant also evolves in response to the herbivore. In the latter case, we solve for the evolutionarily stable strategies of plant defense induction and herbivore hatching rate under different ecological conditions. Our results suggest that the optimal strategies for both plant and herbivore are to avoid direct conflict. As long as the plant has the capability for moderately lethal defense, the herbivore will modify its hatching rate to avoid plant defenses, and the plant will never have to use them. Insights from this model offer a possible solution to the paradox of sublethal defenses and provide a mechanism for stable plantherbivore interactions without the need for natural enemy control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]