Temperature is often considered the most important environmental variable influencing aquatic hosts and parasites. While there have been several theoretical studies and literature reviews that address how warming will impact fisheries host-parasite systems, there had not yet been a quantitative effort to analyze and synthesize the extensive experimental data available that examines this topic.
I am lead author on a meta-analysis that analyzed how parasite-induced mortality is influenced by temperature, and what other host, parasite, and study traits (such as the duration of the study) influence that relationship. I found that temperature had a significant, positive association with increased infected host mortality rate, and that host taxonomy and parasite life history strategy were important factors influencing this relationship.
This research was recently published in Ecology Letters. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ele.70156
