Data for: Resetting our expectations for parasites and their effects on species interactions: A meta-analysis

Instead, there was considerable variation in outcomes, ranging from strongly detrimental to strongly beneficial for infected hosts. Trophically-transmitted parasites increased the negative effects of predation, parasites increased and decreased the negative effects of interspecific competition for parasitized and non-parasitized heterospecifics, respectively, and parasites had particularly strong negative effects on host species interactions in freshwater and marine habitats, yet were beneficial in terrestrial environments.

Our results illuminate the diverse ways in which parasites modify critical linkages in ecological networks, implying that whether the cumulative effects of parasitism are considered detrimental depends not only on the interactions between hosts and their parasites, but also on the many other interactions that hosts experience.