Infracommunity dynamics

Abstract

The work of Holmes (1961, 1962a, b) has been discussed in relation to understanding the nature of competitive interactions among parasites. These studies are also seminal from the standpoint of their bearing on parasite community dynamics since it was from these baseline efforts that quantitative, parasite community ecology emerged. To better explain the structure and dynamics of parasite communities, a hierarchical classification scheme (Fig. 2.1, page 29) was introduced by Bush and Holmes (1986a). The parasite infracommunity was defined as all of the parasite infrapopulations within a single host (Bush and Holmes, 1986a). The classification concept was subsequently extended by Holmes and Price (1986). They described all of the infracommunities within a host population as a component community. All of the parasite infra-communities within an ecosystem were considered as a compound community.