Math Biology Seminar Abstracts

Wednesday November 6, 2002

Fear and Foraging: How Parasitoids Affect Ant Communities

Don Feener

Department of Biology, University of Utah

Abstract: Studies of species interactions in ant communities have been a major source of evidence for the importance of interspecific competition in natural communities. One consequence of the overwhelming evidence for competition in ant communities is that the role of such "top-down" processes as predation and parasitism has been ignored. Recent evidence, however, suggests that the composition and dynamics of ant communities are influenced by highly specialized parasitoids that mediate the outcome of competition among ant species. I review this evidence and present a general framework for integrating the roles of competition and parasitism in the assembly of ant communities.

For more information contact J. Keener, 1-6089

E-mail: keener@math.utah.edu