Some Scientists Are Racing to Save Parasites. Why?
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- Опубліковано 21 сер 2024
- You’ve probably seen a “Save the Whales” T-shirt before. But have you ever seen a “Save the Parasites” one? A group of researchers thinks that maybe it is time to start making them.
To most of us, that might seem like a hard sell. The word “parasite” conjures imagery of swarms of mosquitoes and guts tangled up with tapeworms, of parasite-borne scourges such as malaria or Lyme disease that infect humans and livestock. These types of parasites need to be controlled or eradicated but are just a small fraction of the total found in nature.
The way parasitism works also doesn’t tend to engender sympathy. The “lifestyle” is all about living at the expense of another. Parasites are evolutionary cheaters. Can’t make it on your own? Just use another body as a shelter and food.
But this view misses a truth that researchers have become increasingly aware of: wildlife parasites help keep ecosystems balanced.
“Parasites are puppet masters-they’re this kind of silent force in ecosystems,” says Colin Carlson, a global change biologist at Georgetown University, who has worked to quantify global parasite biodiversity. “They might be the majority of biomass in some ecosystems. They might make up the majority of food web links. And we never think about them.”
Every species on Earth has a corresponding parasite. (Some species have a number of them.) And many of these hangers-on have been with their hosts for much longer than humans have been around. Lemurs and their parasites, for instance, are thought to have evolved together for the past 60 million years.
This means parasites can be incredibly sensitive to changes in the environment and might be able to indicate a healthy ecosystem or warn of changes in climate or habitat loss. So wildlife parasites need to be studied and be listed as endangered species when applicable, Carlson says.
He points to a horsehair worm in the highlands of Japan whose ultimate host is trout. To reach the trout, the parasite must first hitch a ride in a cricket and take control of its mind to make it drown itself. “What I think is amazing is: it turns out that the trout is endangered, and the majority of their diet comes from these crickets,” Carlsonsays. “That parasite is basically single-handedly holding that ecosystem together just by changing the behavior of its host.”
"tie ecosystems together" and "we don't know". Maybe give one example of an actual function if you want to be convincing that this is a priority over everything else we're failing at ecologically
yeah i'm all for conservation and saving the planet but it doesn't look like they know of any benefit from any of these parasites. maybe some contain novel chemical compounds that could be useful
So what kind of effect does pollution from fast fashion have on parasites?
Excellent show! Thought-provoking!
Excellent point, I never gave it a thought how parasites might actually be necessary to keep the global ecosystem healthy. It is certainly a counter intuitive notion.
I think you're more likely to have success if you do general invertibrate conservation. I can't look at that tapeworm. Sorry. And I'm a gardener too, I've used insect parasites as pest control!!! Aphidius wasps are FANTASTIC at cutting down an aphid colony. Damn things run for their lives. I always find a pretty good empty space around where one is located. The aphids know a monster when they see it!
I wanna "Save the Parasites" bumper sticker & T-shirt please!
Are parasites really so important to be protected not tigers ? Are they other animals‘ food ? You protect parasites that will destroy more Hosts . Are the hosts much beneficial to human beings or our plant .? That should definitely be discussed
it is not an alternative. If You want to save tiger's parasites, You need to save the tiger himself. Parasites generally do not destroy hosts, at least not until they breed, because parasites need live hosts.
@@mateuszciechanowski1885 I saw some parasites in the trees. They absorb nutrition from trees. It sounds like that they live peacefully side by side? No one can tell the truth of trees’ feelings
not the best thing to watch while eating lunch!!
WHEN WE COLONIZE MARS… R WE BRINGING PARASITES?
Whether we want to or not the people colonizing mars will bring them and fungal infections, unless we very purposefully treat them. Also we as humans act
as parasites, thus us having to race to colonize mars because we can’t develop a more symbiotic relationship with earth.
we may need to, ever play Mass Effect, maybe hear of a little fictional species called the Quarians? their issues are actually based on real life studies into our immune systems. they barely had any form of parasite or insect driven disease on their homeworlds and when they started living full time in space they had to use envirosuits or their entire immune system would go berserk and kill them!!!!
Thanks
This is so great! Now I want to help save the parasites!
Ok. You ruined my breakfast. And you never explained why the parasites are so important. I don't think is that easy to extinct those little bugs. If a host gone extinct, the parasite simply go to other host. And there is no way to compare a nematode to a tiger. Tigers are millions of times more complex, more "advanced" as species in terms of entropy.
They don't know what extinction will do, that's the problem
Why is any species important?
No, You simply 'think wrong', there are a lot of parasites that are highly specialised towards one host species so they will not shift towards another host. And there are some which went extinct WITH their hosts. Good example is a louse Rallicola extinctus that went extinct with unique endemic New Zealand bird Heteralocha acutirostris (huia). Some went extinct even due to veterinary care of critically endangered species of host, when kept in captivity during ex situ conservation attempts. Good example is Colpocephalum californici, a species of louse inhabiting Californian condor. And, finally, do You suggest that a cuckoo (also a parasite) should not be protected or is less important than its nesting hosts, like meadow pipit? Or myrmecophilous butterflies, like Large Blue (Phengaris arion)? Or a mistletoe?
So you do not know if we need to save them, the title is misleading.