Received: 23 November 2016 | Revised: 13 April 2017 | Accepted: 19 April 2017 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.3062 ORIGINAL RESEARCH Differential impacts of shared parasites on fitness components among competing hosts Olwyn C. Friesen | Robert Poulin | Clément Lagrue Department of Zoology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand Abstract Effects of parasites on individual hosts can eventually translate to impacts on host Correspondence Olwyn C. Friesen, Department of Zoology, communities. In particular, parasitism can differentially affect host fitness among sym- University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. patric and interacting host species. We examined whether the impact of shared para- Email:
[email protected] sites varied among host species within the same community. Specifically, we looked at Funding information the impacts of the acanthocephalan Acanthocephalus galaxii, the trematodes Department of Zoology, University of Otago Coitocaecum parvum and Maritrema poulini, and the nematode Hedruris spinigera, on three host species: the amphipods, Paracalliope fluviatilis and Paracorophium excava- tum, and the isopod, Austridotea annectens. We assessed parasite infection levels in the three host species and tested for effects on host survival, behavior, probability of pairing, and fecundity. Maritrema poulini and C. parvum were most abundant in P. exca- vatum but had no effect on its survival, whereas they negatively affected the survival of P. fluviatilis, the other amphipod. Female amphipods carrying young had higher M. poulini and C. parvum abundance than those without, yet the number of young car- ried was not linked to parasite abundance. Behavior of the isopod A. annectens was affected by M. poulini infection; more heavily infected individuals were more active. Paracorophium excavatum moved longer distances when abundance of C.