Kim N. Mouritsen

TL;DR: A large amount of published information on parasitism in intertidal communities is brought together to highlight the potential influence of parasites on the structure and biodiversity of these communities, and suggests that parasites must be included in future community studies and food web models of intert tidal ecosystems.

TL;DR: Parasites primarily affect food web structure through changes to diversity and complexity, however, compared to free-living species, their life-history traits lead to more complex feeding niches and altered motifs.

TL;DR: The respective effect of individual parasite species was roughly proportional to the number of host species they affected, and thus the life cycle characteristics of parasites determine to a large extent their impact on food web structure.

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that parasites, solely through their impact on the behaviour of a single community member, can be significant determinants of animal community structure and function.

TL;DR: It is argued that the adaptive significance of manipulation in the present system depends critically on the feeding behaviour of the definitive host, and if cockles constitute the majority of prey items, there will be selection against manipulation.