Data from: Parasite have variable effects on the outcomes of host species interactions

Despite the ubiquitous nature of parasitism, the general effects of how
parasitism alters the outcome of host species interactions such as
competition, mutualism, predation, and reproduction remain unknown. Using
a meta-analysis of 178 studies, we examined how the outcomes of diverse
species interactions differed between parasitized and non-parasitized
hosts. We also evaluated how the effects of parasitism on species
interactions varied geographically with latitude. Overall, parasitism had
relatively large deleterious effects on the outcome of host species
interactions. However, there was considerable variation among interactions
in these outcomes, with reproduction severely negatively affected,
marginal effects on competition, and muted effects on predation – the
latter results emanating because of the surprising tendency of parasitism
to frequently reduce the effects of competition and predation. The effects
of parasites did not differ between macro- and microparasites, nor did the
shared evolutionary histories of hosts and parasites have an effect.
Parasites had detrimental effects on the outcomes of species interactions
near the equator, but more variable effects at temperate and higher
latitudes. These results highlight the need to better understand how
parasitism can affect the multitude of complex species interactions that
structure biological communities.