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UC Berkeley
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Museum of Physical Factors
Host-Parasite Interactions
I maintain a continuing interest in host-parasite interactions within natural communities. For about 10 years, I studied the interactions between the salt marsh snail Cerithidea californica and a diverse assemblage of larval trematodes that exploit it as first intermediate host in their life cycles. Most of the work was conducted in Bolinas Lagoon, just north of San Francisco. The two major questions this research addressed were (1) do parasites compete for snail hosts?, and (2) do parasites regulate host population size? I have published a number of papers addressing the first question and plan (in the not-too-distant future) to publish my results on the population regulation question.

Related Publications

Sousa, W.P. 1983. Host life history and the effect of parasitic castration on growth: a field study of Cerithidea californica Haldeman (Gastropoda: Prosobranchia) and its trematode parasites. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 73:273-296.

Sousa, W.P. and M. Gleason. 1989. Does parasitic infection compromise host survival under extreme environmental conditions: the case for Cerithidea californica (Gastropoda: Prosobranchia)? Oecologia 80:456-464.

Sousa, W.P. 1990. Spatial scale and the processes structuring a guild of larval trematode parasites. Pages 41-67 in G.W. Esch, A.O. Bush, and J.M. Aho, eds. Parasite Communities: Patterns and Processes. Chapman and Hall, London .

Sousa, W.P. and E.D. Grosholz. 1990. The influence of habitat structure on the transmission of parasites. Pages 300-324 in S.S. Bell, E.D. McCoy, and H.R. Mushinsky, eds. Habitat Structure: The Physical Arrangement of Objects in Space, Chapman and Hall, London .

Sousa, W.P. 1991. Can models of soft-sediment community structure be complete without parasites? American Zoologist 31:821-830.

Sousa, W.P. 1992. Interspecific interactions among larval trematode parasites of freshwater and marine snails. American Zoologist 32:583-592.

Sousa, W.P. 1993. Size-dependent predation on the salt-marsh snail Cerithidea californica Haldeman. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 166:19-37.

Sousa, W.P. 1993. Interspecific antagonism and species coexistence in a diverse guild of larval trematode parasites. Ecological Monographs 63:103-128.

Sousa, W.P. 1994. Patterns and processes in communities of helminth parasites. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 9: 52-57.

Sousa, W.P. 1994. Interactive versus isolationist helminth communities reconsidered: a reply to V. Haukisalmi. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 9: 344-345.