While parasites are increasingly recognized as important components of ecosystems, we currently know little about how they alter ecosystem nutrient availability via host-mediated nutrient cycling. We examined whether infection alters the flow of nutrients through hosts and whether such effects depend upon host diet quality. To do so, we compared the mass specific nutrient (i.e., nitrogen and phosphorus) release rates, ingestion rates, and elemental composition of uninfected Daphnia to those infected with a bacterial parasite, P. ramosa. N and P release rates were increased by infection when Daphnia were fed P-poor diets, but we found no effect of infection on the nutrient release of individuals fed P-rich diets. Calculations based on the first law of thermodynamics indicated that infection should increase the nutrient release rates of Daphnia by decreasing nutrient accumulation rates in host tissues. Although we found reduced nutrient accumulation rates in infected Daphnia fed all diets, this reduction did not increase the nutrient release rates of Daphnia fed the P-rich diet because infected Daphnia fed this diet ingested nutrients more slowly than uninfected hosts. Our results thus indicate that parasites can significantly alter the nutrient use of animal consumers, which could affect the availability of nutrients in heavily parasitized environments.

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Defining the relationship between nutrients and parasitism is complicated by shifts in host physiology and population density, which can both mediate the effects of host diet on parasites and vice versa. We examined the relationship between nutrient availability and an abundant parasite capable of both horizontal and vertical transmission (Hamiltosporidium tvaerminnensis) of a planktonic crustacean, Daphnia magna, in rock pools on Baltic Sea Skerry islands. We found that the relative availability of nutrients directly affected infection prevalence; parasite prevalence was higher in pools with higher particulate N:P ratios. Infection prevalence was not related to Daphnia population densities. A complementary experiment that examined host responses to an N:P gradient in mesocosms indicated that high N:P ratios can increase spore load in the hosts. We surmise that high N:P food increases Daphnia feeding rate, which increases their contact with parasite spores and leads to higher prevalence and more intense infections. We found no direct evidence that parasite‐induced changes in host nutrient use affected nutrient dynamics in pools. However, the relationship between diet N:P and the parasite's prevalence and load is consistent with previously documented patterns of this parasite's effect on host nutrient use. Taken together, this study suggests that high N:P ratios in food may benefit the parasite in multiple ways and could create environments that favour horizontal transmission over vertical transmission for parasites capable of both transmission routes. If so, nutrient limitation could have long‐term consequences for host–parasite evolution.

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Parasite-induced changes in the nutrient balance of hosts could alter the availability of nutrients in ecosystems by changing consumer-driven nutrient recycling. While these effects on host nutrient use are mediated by host physiology, they likely depend on characteristics of the parasite and host diet quality. We examined this possibility by measuring nutrient release rates of uninfected Daphnia and conspecifics infected by two microparasites (the bacterium Pasteuria ramosa and the microsporidium Hamiltosporidium tvaerminnensis) from daphnid hosts fed food that varied in phosphorus content. We found that infection type and diet affected host nutrient release rates, but the strength of these effects varied among parasite treatments. To improve our understanding of these effects, we examined whether two separate aspects of host exploitation (parasite-induced reductions in host fecundity and parasite load) could account for variation in Daphnia nutrient release, ingestion, and elemental ratios caused by our infection and diet treatments. Regardless of whether we compared individuals across infection type or diet treatment, Daphnia fecundity described variation in multiple aspects of host nutrient use better than infection, diet, or spore load. Our results suggest that parasite-induced changes in host nutrient use are both parasite and diet specific, and that host fecundity could be a useful parameter for predicting the magnitude and direction of these changes.