The coexistence of hybrid and parental Daphnia: the role of parasites.

Parasite driven time-lagged negative frequency-dependent selection of hosts has been studied in natural populations by following changes in host genotype frequencies over time. However, such dynamics have not been considered at higher taxonomic levels, for example, between parental species and their hybrids. In a field study on a Daphnia hybrid system, we observed that one Daphnia taxon first was relatively under-infected, but became over-infected after a strong increase in frequency. This finding is consistent with the idea of parasite evolution towards the most frequent host taxon. In two experiments, we investigated whether the assumptions made by a model of negative frequency-dependent selection apply to our host taxa system. First, we showed that the parasite can change the outcome of taxa competition and secondly, we confirmed that the over-infection of one host taxon observed in the field has a genetic basis. Our results indicate that the incorporation of host-parasite interactions at the species level may allow us to gain a more complete picture of forces driving dynamic taxa coexistence in Daphnia hybrid systems. More generally, we suggest that if hybrids coexist in sympatry with parental taxa, the infection patterns as observed under natural conditions may be rather temporal and unstable.

Facing multiple enemies: parasitised hosts respond to predator kairomones.

During their lifetime most organisms are exposed to various enemies influencing their victims in multiple direct and indirect ways. Most studies concentrate on the effects of one enemy at a time, thereby not taking into account that in nature organisms are often simultaneously exposed to more than one enemy. We conducted a life-history experiment to investigate the simultaneous effects of predators (fish, Leuciscus idus) and parasites (microparasite, Caullerya mesnili) on their victim (Daphnia galeata). D. galeata were exposed to predator kairomones, parasites or both. D. galeata are able to sense the presence of fish predators via chemical cues (= kairomones). Both fish predator kairomones and microparasite infections influence the life history of Daphnia. Some of the effects of fish predator kairomones are directly opposed to microparasite effects; fecundity, for example, is increased in the presence of fish kairomones and decreased in Daphnia parasitised with C. mesnili. We investigated the influence of both threats on age at maturity, body size at different adult instars, fecundity and survival of one D. galeata clone. In the presence of fish kairomones, all D. galeata matured significantly earlier and increased the number of eggs in the second brood significantly. Parasitised D. galeata matured significantly earlier than non-parasitised ones in the absence and presence of fish kairomones. An infection with the microparasite C. mesnili led to significantly lower clutch sizes at the second adult instar, to significantly smaller body sizes from adult instar three onwards and to significantly reduced survival. No significant interaction effect between the responses to fish presence and to parasite infection was found for any of the investigated life-history traits. The lack of interaction effects between the exposure to predator kairomones and parasite infection was most likely due to the different timing of the effects. Fish kairomones affected D. galeata early in its life history whereas C. mesnili increased in its effects over time. Our results show that parasitised D. galeata are able to exhibit life-history responses to fish predator presence early in their lives. Thus, D. galeata parasitised with C. mesnili have a similar chance as non-parasitised D. galeata to escape from fish predation via life-history changes. Since older parasitised D. galeata are smaller, they may have an even better chance to escape visual predators under actual predation.