Exploited and excreting: parasite type affects host nutrient recycling

Parasite-induced changes in the nutrient balance of hosts could alter the availability of nutrients in ecosystems by changing consumer-driven nutrient recycling. While these effects on host nutrient use are mediated by host physiology, they likely depend on characteristics of the parasite and host diet quality. We examined this possibility by measuring nutrient release rates of uninfected Daphnia and conspecifics infected by two microparasites (the bacterium Pasteuria ramosa and the microsporidium Hamiltosporidium tvaerminnensis) from daphnid hosts fed food that varied in phosphorus content. We found that infection type and diet affected host nutrient release rates, but the strength of these effects varied among parasite treatments. To improve our understanding of these effects, we examined whether two separate aspects of host exploitation (parasite-induced reductions in host fecundity and parasite load) could account for variation in Daphnia nutrient release, ingestion, and elemental ratios caused by our infection and diet treatments. Regardless of whether we compared individuals across infection type or diet treatment, Daphnia fecundity described variation in multiple aspects of host nutrient use better than infection, diet, or spore load. Our results suggest that parasite-induced changes in host nutrient use are both parasite and diet specific, and that host fecundity could be a useful parameter for predicting the magnitude and direction of these changes.