Kd. Lafferty, ENVIRONMENTAL PARASITOLOGY - WHAT CAN PARASITES TELL US ABOUT HUMAN IMPACTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT, Parasitology today, 13(7), 1997, pp. 251-255
There are a variety of ways that environmental changes affect parasite
s, suggesting that information on parasites can indicate anthropogenic
impacts. Parasitism may increase if the impact reduces host resistanc
e or increases the density of intermediate or definitive hosts. Parasi
tism may decrease if definitive or intermediate host density declines
or parasites suffer higher mortality directly (eg. from toxic effects
on parasites) or indirectly (infected hosts suffer differentially high
mortality). Although these scenarios are opposing, they can provide a
rich set of predictions once we understand the true associations betw
een each parasite and impact. In this review, Kevin Lafferty discusses
how parasite ecologists have used and can use parasites to assess env
ironmental quality.