Is the local environment more important than within-host interactions in determining coinfection?

Host populations often vary in the magnitude of coinfection they experience across environmental gradients. Further, coinfection often occurs sequentially, with a second parasite infecting the host after the first has established a primary infection. Because the local environment and interactions between coinfecting parasites can both drive patterns of coinfection, it is important to disentangle the relative contributions of environmental factors and within-host interactions to patterns of coinfection. Here we develop a conceptual framework and present an empirical case study to disentangle these facets of coinfection. Across multiple lakes, we surveyed populations of five damselfly (host) species and quantified primary parasitism by aquatic, ectoparasitic water mites, and secondary parasitism by terrestrial, endoparasitic gregarines. We first asked if coinfection is predicted by abiotic and biotic factors within the local environment, finding that the probability of coinfection decreas..., , , Associated data files for:

Is the local environment more important than within-host interactions in determining coinfection?

Adam Z. Hasik*1,2,3, Jason Bried4, Daniel I. Bolnick5, and Adam M. Siepielski1

1Department of Biological Sciences, SCEN 601, 850 W. Dickson St. University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA

2Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK (present address)

3Jacob Blaustein Center for Scientific Cooperation, The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel

4Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820, USA

5Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA

*Author for correspondence: Adam Z. Hasik, Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK; email: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

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