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The relation between the number of parasites/host and host age: population dynamic causes and maximum likelihood estimation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

S. W. Pacala  and
A. P. Dobson
S. W. Pacala
Affiliation:
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Connecticut, U-42 Storrs, Connecticut 06268
A. P. Dobson
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544
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Summary

We examined dynamical factors that shape the distribution of the number of parasites/host in constant or temporally varying environments, and with or without host-age dependent variation in host susceptibility and parasite mortality. We predict properties of the parasite distribution in the absence of density-dependent factors such as densitydependent mortality or recruitment and parasite-induced host mortality. These properties provide a criterion for the detection of density dependence in temporally variable systems with host-age dependent interactions. We have then introduced methods to estimate and statistically evaluate the effects of host age or size on the distribution of parasites/host. The methods are based on a maximum likelihood protocol for linear and non-linear regression when data are negatively binomially distributed. We have illustrated the use of the theoretical results and statistical methods by re-analysing the data of Halvorsen & Andersen (1984) on cestode infections in Norwegian arctic charr and by analysing new data on nematode infections in Caribbean Anolis lizards.

Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 96 , Issue 1 , February 1988 , pp. 197 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

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