Table 1 Types of consumer interactions, following the framework of Lafferty and Kuris 2002.

From: A food web including parasites for kelp forests of the Santa Barbara Channel, California

Trophic Interaction Type

Victim death required?

Victim fitness:

Intensity dependent effect on victim?

Number of victims (per life stage) >1

Predation

Yes

0

No

Micropredation/grazing

No

>0

Yes/No

Number of victims (per life stage) = 1

Typical parasite

No

>0

Yes

Trophically transmitted parasite

Yes

0

Yes

Parasitic castration

No

0

No

Pathogen infection

No

>0

No

  1. Consumer strategy determined by the number of victims consumed, the fate of the victims consumed, and whether the effect of consumption is intensity dependent. For typical parasites, the effect on the host depends on the number of parasites that infect the host, so such interactions are intensity dependent. Alternatively, a pathogen reproduces within the host, so the effect on the host is the same independent of the number of parasites that initially infect the host.
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