A Functional Biology of Parasitism

Part 1: The extent of parasitism; definitions; the concept of harm; some adaptations to parasitism; life cycle and ecology. Part 2 Population concepts: background; general definitions; factors affecting parasite populations; the dispersion concept; dynamics of population growth. Part 3 Factors influencing parasite populations: density-independent factors - introduction - case histories; density-dependent factors - introduction - case histories; suprapopulation dynamics - introduction - case histories. Part 4 Influence of parasites on host populations: introduction to the concept of regulation; Crofton's approach; overdispersion and regulation - introduction; overdispersion and regulation - case histories; epidemiological implications; models. Part 5 Life history strategies: reproductive strategies; colonization strategies; host behaviour and transmission; theoretical considerations. Part 6 Infracommunity dynamics: the evolution of parasite communities; infracommunity structure; the screen/filter concept. Part 7 Component and compound communities: core-satellite and generalist-specialist species concepts; determinants of the component community; habitat variability (succession) and parasitism; the biocoenosis and parasite flow; the allogenic-autogenic species concept. Part 8 Biogeographical aspects: some factors affecting the geographical distribution of parasites; patterns of distribution; ecological aspects; applied aspects of biogeography. Part 9 Evolutionary aspects: microevolution; evolution of host-parasite interactions; parasite influence in the evolutionary biology of the host. Part 10 Concluding remarks: population concepts; factors influencing parasite populations; influence of parasites on host populations; life-history strategies; infracommunity dynamics; component and compound community structure biogeographical aspects; evolutionary aspects; what next for the evolution and ecology of parasitism?