Abstract
In host-parasite systems, dominant host types are expected to be eventually replaced by other hosts due to the elevated potency of their specific parasites. This leads to changes in the abundance of both hosts and parasites exhibiting cycles of alternating dominance called Red Queen dynamics. Host-parasite models with less than three hosts and parasites have been demonstrated to exhibit Red Queen cycles, but natural host-parasite interactions typically involve many host and parasite types resulting in an intractable system with many parameters. Here we present numerical simulations of Red Queen dynamics with more than ten hosts and specialist parasites under the condition of no super-host nor super-parasite. The parameter region where the Red Queen cycles arise contracts as the number of interacting host and parasite types increases. The interplay between inter-host competition and parasite infectivity influences the condition for the Red Queen dynamics. Relatively large host carrying capacity and intermediate rates of parasite mortality result in never-ending cycles of dominant types.
Highlights
In host-parasite systems, dominant host types are expected to be eventually replaced by other hosts due to the elevated potency of their specific parasites
Host-parasite models with less than three hosts and parasites have been demonstrated to exhibit Red Queen cycles, but natural host-parasite interactions typically involve many host and parasite types resulting in an intractable system with many parameters
As first attempt in modeling high-dimensional host-parasite systems, we focus on the consumer-resource model of host and parasite interactions with type-II functional response
Summary
In host-parasite systems, dominant host types are expected to be eventually replaced by other hosts due to the elevated potency of their specific parasites. In the case of host-parasite systems, oscillations with perpetual replacement of dominant hosts and parasites are expected because of differential susceptibility of hosts and differential infectivity of parasites[5,6,7,8] This persistent replacement behavior is called Red Queen dynamics[9,10]. When we increase the number of types, the number of parameters in the models escalates (more than 100 in models with more than 10 host and 10 parasite types), the complexity of the interactions increase exponentially, and stochastic effects – including chance extinctions – become more severe It is unclear if multi-host and multi-parasite models give www.nature.com/scientificreports qualitatively similar prediction to more simple models. Identifying the conditions that give rise to Red Queen dynamics is useful for understanding host-parasite coevolution in natural systems
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