Generally treated as less important to ecosystems than other, more glamorous organisms, parasites may play a larger role than thought.
A survey of hundreds of species in three west coast estuaries found that parasites account for three percent of total biomass. In sheer weight, they compare to top-of-the-food-chain predators.
The findings, published today in Nature, can't be directly extrapolated to other ecosystems -- but they're greater by a full order of magnitude than previous parasitic biomass estimates, suggesting that parasites might be widely underappreciated.
Two words: Yuck. Wow!
Ecosystem energetic implications of parasite and free-living biomass in three estuaries [Nature] [not yet online]
Image: Courtesy of Todd Huspeni, a California horn snail with its shell removed; parasitic tissue (white) has replaced its testes.
See Also:
- Amazing Parasites Turn Ants Into Berries
- Honeybee Weapon in War on Cancer
- Cats Control Rats ... With Parasites
- Barely Alive, Seafloor Microbes Might Resemble Exo-Organisms
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