The influence of environmental factors on abundance and prevalence of a commensal ostracod hosted by an invasive crayfish: are ‘parasite rules’ relevant to non-parasitic symbionts?

Summary Symbiosis represents a widespread and successful lifestyle, but research on symbiotic associations has been mainly focused on parasites. Three general patterns in parasite ecology have been proposed: (i) aggregation, (ii) positive and tight correlation between mean symbiont abundance and its variance and (iii) positive correlation between abundance and prevalence of symbionts. The factors affecting abundance and prevalence within...