Emerging frontiers in animal behavior and parasitism: Integration across scales

Abstract

AbstractResearch on animal behavior and parasitism is intrinsically interdisciplinary. This chapter explores potential expansions to the frontiers of this research from additional perspectives, transcending three scales of biological organization. Focusing on the disciplines of organismal biology, molecular ecology and genomics, and ecosystem and community ecology, the chapter identifies tools and concepts that can help answer outstanding questions about parasites and behavior (e.g., by improving the ability to survey whole parasite communities) or provide novel and powerful framing for grappling with their consequences (e.g., by embedding hosts and parasites within larger food webs). The chapter also highlights the importance of parasite-mediated behaviors for understanding ecology and evolution more broadly. Together, the chapter envisions a future for studies of parasites and behavior that is increasingly integrative and interdisciplinary.