Grazer host density mediates the ability of parasites to protect foundational plants from overgrazing

Abstract

Like many top consumers, parasites can regulate feeding of their prey via trait‐mediated means. If parasites modify the feeding behavior of ecologically important grazers, they may have cascading effects on the structure and functioning of whole plant communities. The extent to which parasites can influence plant communities in this way is largely dependent on the strength of their behavioral alteration, their prevalence in host grazers, and the density of those hosts. Recent experiments and comparative surveys in southeastern USA salt marshes revealed that common larval trematode parasites suppress the per capita grazing impacts of the marsh periwinkle Littoraria irrorata, generating a trophic cascade that protects foundational marsh plants from drought‐associated overgrazing. Here, we conducted a field manipulation wherein we modified grazer host density while holding infection prevalence constant at an ecologically relevant level (20%) to determine whether the indirect, facilitative effects of parasites on marsh plants varied with the density of grazers. We found that parasites had significant positive impacts on marsh net primary productivity at moderate densities of snails (≥50 snails/0.5 m2), but that the positive effects of parasites were negligible at lower densities. Our results confirm the findings of previous studies that parasites can protect marsh plants from overgrazing at sufficiently high prevalence, but show that their ability to do so depends on host density.