Taking cues from ecological and evolutionary theories to expand the landscape of disgust

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Authors

Allegra Love , Alexis Heckley, Quinn Webber

Abstract

Behavioural avoidance of parasites in the environment generates what is known as the “landscape of disgust” (analogous to the predator-induced “landscape of fear”). Despite the potential for improving our inference of host-parasite dynamics, three limitations of the landscape of disgust restrict the insight that is gained from current research: 1) many host-parasite systems will not be appropriate for invoking the landscape of disgust framework, 2) existing research has primarily focused on immediate choices made by hosts on small scales, limiting predictive power, generalizability, and the value of the insight obtained, and 3) relevant ecological and evolutionary theory has yet to be integrated into the framework, challenging our ability to interpret the landscape of disgust within the context of most host-parasite systems. In this review, we explore the specific requirements for implementing a landscape of disgust framework in empirical systems. We also propose greater integration of habitat selection and evolutionary theories, aiming to generate novel insight, by exploring how the landscape of disgust varies within and across generations, presenting opportunities for future research. Despite interest in the impacts of parasitism on animal movement and behaviour, many unanswered questions remain. 

DOI

https://doi.org/10.32942/X2GP5R

Subjects

Life Sciences

Keywords

Co-evolution, density-dependence, disease ecology, eco-evolutionary dynamics, Habitat selection, host-parasite dynamics, natural selection, parasite avoidance

Dates

Published: 2023-09-13 05:09

Last Updated: 2024-08-06 01:07

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License

CC-By Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Additional Metadata

Language:
English

Conflict of interest statement:
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Data and Code Availability Statement:
There is no data or code associated with this article.